A history of the art of bookbinding : with some account of the books of the ancients

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

OF THE

CITY OF BOSTON

A-H.

,v3L\\\.6o

A HISTORY OF

ART OF BOOKBINDING

CARVED IVORY COVER (REVERSE) OF THE PSALTER OF

QUEEN MELISSENDA. ? I 2ttt CENTURY.

CFrom the original in the British Museum.)

A HISTORY OF

ART OF BOOKBINDING,

WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF

THE BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

EDITED BY

SALT ^BRASSI NGTON.j F.S

Author of " Historic Bindings in the Bodleian Libany," etc.

JllustrateO wltb IRumeroug Engravings, ano flMwtograpbic IRcin'oiMictions ot
ancient JBlnOings in Colour ano /iftonotints.

LONDON:

ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW.

U

-7,3

•;. . , I llrt^.

PREFACE.

HISTORY of the Art of Bookbinding" is based upon
a useful and now scarce little book entitled " An Inquiry
into the Nature and Form of the Books of the Ancients,"
by John Hannett. At Mr. Hannett's request I undertook
to revise, rearrange, and rewrite his treatise, so that this
history is practically a new one. To me it is a matter of
deep regret that Mr. Hannett did not live to see the work completed.

Following the example so well set by Mr. Hannett, as far as possible
theories have been avoided, and in stating facts preference has been given
to the actual words of the authors quoted, references being placed at the
foot of the page.

I desire to thank my numerous correspondents for the help they have
generously given me.

My thanks are especially due to E. Maunde Thompson, Esq., D.C.L.,
LL.D., to Richard Garnett, Esq., LL.D., to E. J. L. Scott, Esq., M.A.,
to Augustus Wollaston Franks, Esq., C.B., F.S.A., and to W. Y. Fletcher,
Esq., F.S.A., for facilities given me for the examination of bindings in the
British Museum ; to W. B. Nicholson, Esq., M.A., for the same privilege
at the Bodleian Library ; to the Council of the Society of Antiquaries, for
permission to copy the cover of the Winton Domesday Book ; also to
John Cotton, Esq., F.R.I. B.A., H. M. Cundall, Esq., F.S.A., to the Rev.
George Jinks, to E. M. Borrajo, Esq., and to C. J. Wertheimer, Esq.

To H. S. Richardson, Esq., and Cedric Chivers, Esq., I am indebted
for the loan of two engravings.

W. SALT BRASSINGTON.

Moseley, Birmingham, 1893.

MEMOIR OF JOHN HANNETT.

OHN HANNETT, author, printer, bookbinder, antiquary, was born on
October 25th, 1803, at Sleaford, in Lincolnshire, where his father, John
Hannett senior, formerly Fleet surgeon in the Royal Navy, practised as
a surgeon until his death, February 27th, 1809, aged forty-two. His
widow, whose maiden name was Sarah Andrews, (hence her son's well-
known pen-name,) afterwards married Mr. Joseph Roberts, and died
June 1 8th, 1848, aged seventy years.
Upon leaving school the subject of this memoir was apprenticed to J. Creasey,
printer and bookbinder, Market Place, Sleaford. In the twenty-fourth year of his age
he went to London, where the next ten years of his life were spent in the famous
publishing house of Simpkin, Marshall & Co. It was during those years of early
manhood that John Hannett employed the leisure after business hours in collecting
materials for his first books ; it was then that he became acquainted with Dr. Dibdin,
the Rev. T. H. Home, Sir S. R. Meyrick, and other noted bibliographers and collectors
of the old school, who generously assisted him in his labour of love.

Hannett's first book, a practical treatise on the art and craft of bookbinding, of
which he himself was a master, and therefore could speak with authority, was entitled :
" Bibliopegia, or the Art of Bookbinding in all its Branches." The book appeared in
small duodecimo form, pp. 212, 10 plates, and addenda pp. x. It was published in the
year 1835, under the pen-name of John Andrews Arnett.

The next book was of a more ambitious nature. Believing that an intelligent
workman should know something of the history of the art he practises, John Hannett
studied the best bibliographies, and examined such specimens of ancient binding as
were then accessible, with the result that in 1837 he published : —

" An Inquiry into the Nature and Form of the Books of the Ancients, with a
History of Bookbinding from the Times of the Greeks and Romans to the Present Day."
Pp.212.

viii MEMOIR OF JOHN HANNETT.

This book was well received, and, in combination with " Bibliopegia," it passed
through six editions between 1837 and 1865.

In the same year (1837) and under the same pen-name another book appeared : —

" The Bookbinders' School of Design as applied to the Combination of Tools in
the Art of Finishing." Pp. 14, 8 plates engraved by Joseph Morris. 4to.

"Bibliopegia" was translated into German, and published at Stuttgart in i6mo
form in 1837.

Incessant work had overtaxed the young man's strength, and reluctantly he left
London in the year of the Queen's accession, in order to commence business on his
own account as a printer and bookbinder at Market Rasen, in his native county, where
he remained seven years, and then removed to Henley-in-Arden. On November 10th,
1844, John Hannett commenced business as a printer, bookbinder, general stationer,
and postmaster, in the High Street of the quiet old Warwickshire town, and after
twenty-five years of ceaseless industry retired on a comfortable fortune to end his days
in a picturesque old house in Henley Street.

From the post office at Henley-in-Arden, in 1848, Mr. Hannett issued the fourth
edition of " Bibliopegia," printed by himself, though bearing the name of Simpkin,
Marshall & Co., London. Another edition quickly followed ; and the sixth and last
edition, with a new title-page, preface, and index, appeared in 1865.

At Henley John Hannett found himself in the midst of a famous forest, sacred
with memories of Shakespeare, the scene of many historical events and the home of
many romantic legends. With true antiquarian instinct our author turned to the
Forest of Arden, and found a subject for another book : —

" The Forest of Arden, its Towns, Villages, and Hamlets : a Topographical and
Historical Account of the District between the Avon, Henley-in-Arden and Hampton-
in- Arden." Pp. 320, 57 cuts by E. Whymper, map. 1863.

The merits of this interesting record of local history won for it liberal patronage,
and the author had only a short time before his death completed a revised edition of
the book. Mr. Hannett was a constant contributor to the Stratford-on- Avon Herald ;
and in 1886, when eighty -three years of age, he collected and published a series of
letters written for that paper : —

"Notes Illustrative of the Early Corporations of Old English Towns," pp. 14: a
curious and interesting work, having reference especially to Henley-in-Arden and its
local life and charities.

After he retired from business Mr. Hannett devoted the remainder of his long
and useful life to the service of the little town in which he had made his home.

In 1873 Mr. Darwin Galton, the Lord of the Manor, appointed Mr. Hannett
High Bailiff of Henley. In this capacity the worthy old man led all movements for
the good of the small community over which he presided. He was particularly the

MEMOIR OF JOHN HANNETT. ix

friend of the very old and very young. On each succeeding birthday anniversary the
High Bailiff gathered round him all the poor people of about his own age, entertaining
these old friends in good old English style, and making a present to each. In the
summer he frequently entertained merry parties of boys and girls in the old orchard
behind his residence. When he met the village children in the street he had always
a kindly greeting for them, and he relieved the sick poor of the town so unostentatiously
that few were aware of the extent of his benevolence.

There is yet another field in which this kindly old man distinguished himself :
he believed in old English sports, and for many years acted as secretary to the
Henley Steeplechases. He was also secretary and treasurer to the local charities, and
could make a speech or deliver an interesting lecture to his fellow-townsmen when
called upon.

In April 1893, being then in his ninetieth year, John Hannett passed peacefully
away. In his will was found a card on which he had written the following lines : —

" But late I saw him, still the same,
Though years lay on him, mellow, ripe, and kind ;

Age had but hardened, not subdued,
Had but matured, not dimm'd, his vigorous mind."

Amid tokens of sincere regret the remains of this good man were laid to rest
in the churchyard of the little Norman church of Beaudesert, in the Forest of Arden.
The simple record of his useful life is the best eulogy that can be written.

W. S. B.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION : THE EARLIEST RECORDS OF PREHISTORIC MAN ..... 3

CHAPTER II.

RECORDS OF THE EARLIEST NATIONS — THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN BOOKS . . J

CHAPTER III.

THE RECORDS AND BOOKS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS . . . . . • l7

CHAPTER IV.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS . ...... 26

PART II.
A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

CHAPTER V.

FIRST BOOKBINDINGS — IVORY DIPTYCHS — EARLY CHRISTIAN BOOKBINDINGS BYZANTINE

BINDINGS . . ............ 53

CHAPTER VI.

CAROLINGIAN PERIOD — BOOKBINDINGS IN IVORY GOLDSMITHS' WORK AND ENAMEL . 62

xii CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER VII.

CELTIC BOOKBINDING IRISH BOOK-SATCHELS BOOK-SHRINES — METAL BINDINGS AND

ORNAMENTAL LEATHER BOOKBINDINGS . . ... .... 74

CHAPTER VIII.

MONASTIC BOOKBINDING — ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL BOOKBINDING UP TO THE INVEN-
TION OF PRINTING ............ 86

CHAPTER IX.

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BOOKBINDING IN THE TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CENTURIES IC>7

CHAPTER X.

CONTINENTAL BOOKBINDING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY PATRONS OF LITERATURE

LEATHER BOOKBINDING, ENGLISH GUILDS GERMAN, ITALIAN, NETHERLANDISH, AND

FRENCH BINDINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 14

CHAPTER XL

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING, FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH

CENTURIES ............. 135

CHAPTER XII.

BOOKBINDING IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY SIGNATURES — FORWARDING PRICE OF

BINDINGS RESTRICTED BY LAW IN ENGLAND BOOKS IN CHAINS — ORNAMENTED

EDGES — EMBROIDERED BOOKBINDINGS . . . . . . . . .159

CHAPTER XIII.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS ITALIAN — FRENCH — GREAT COLLECTORS AND FAMOUS BOOK-
BINDERS ..............

CHAPTER XIV.

173

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS BINDINGS IN VELVET, GOLD, SILVER, AND ENAMEL — ENGLISH

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS FROM THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. TO THAT OF QUEEN ANNE 207

CHAPTER XV.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING ........... 237

Appendix A ............. 265

Appendix B ............. 268

Appendix C

270

LIST OF COLOURED PLATES.

1. Carved ivory cover (reverse) of the Psalter of Queen Melissenda .... Frontispiece

2. Carved ivory cover (obverse) of the Psalter of Queen Melissenda (? I2th century) . To face page 60

3. Book-cover of gold and enamel adorned with gems. German, 12th century . „ „ 72

4. Case of Molaise's Gospels (upper side). Irish work, early 11 th century . „ „ 76
I . Case of Stowe Missal (upper side) „ ,, 82

6. Wooden cover of an account-book of the city of Siena A. D. 1310. Painted gesso . ,, ,, 102

7. Stamped-leather binding (? Winchester, 12th century) upon the "Winton

Domesday Book." In the collection of the Society of Antiquaries. London . ,, ,, 109

5. Stamped-leather binding (? London, early 13th century) upon " Historia

Evangelica." Egerton MS. 272. British Museum ,, ,, no

9. Binding of an Italian MS. Red morocco, gold-tooled, in Arabesque design. Arms

of a Cardinal ............. „. „ 182

10. Binding from the library of James I., upon " Pontificale Romanum Clementis VIII.,

Pont. Max." . . . „ „ 228

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Prehistoric carving, in outline on slate, representing a group of reindeer. (From the original in the British

Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6

Babylonian contract-tablet of baked cla}7, with seal-impressions. (Photographed from the original in the

British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 9

Terra-cotta barrel-shaped cylinder containing the history of the capture of Babylon by Cyrus. (Photographed

from the original in the British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 11

Octagonal terra-cotta Assyrian cylinder. (Photographed from the original in the British Musenm) ... 13

Assyrian clay tablet. (Showing the form of the letters in a cuneiform inscription) ... ... ... 15

Inscription cylinder. (Now in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge) ... ... ... ... 16

The Rosetta Stone ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 19

Egyptian roll of papyrus. (Photographed from the original in the British Museum) ... ... ... 20

Part of the seventeenth chapter of " The Book of the Dead," showing the arrangement of the hieroglyphics

and an illustrative vignette ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 22

Ancient Roman reading. (From a painting found at Pompeii) ... ... ... ... ... 34

Roman manuscripts ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 38

Ancient roll ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 41

Roman book-box ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 43

Roman books and writing materials ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 43

Roman tablet of two leaves ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 44

Roman tablet of three leaves ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 44

Roman tablet with riband forming a hinge ... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... 45

Ivory diptych, in the library of the Vatican, Rome ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 48

Frontispiece to first edition ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 52

Ancient binding (? nth century) ornamented with gold and jewels. (Formerly in the library of the Marquis

de Ganay, now in South Kensington Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 59

A mediaeval scribe at work in his study. (From the title-page of a book printed at Venice in 1505) ... 61

Binding of the eleventh century, in the treasury of the Cathedral of Essen, near Diisseldorf ... ... 68

Ancient Irish book-cover, bronze. (From the original in the British Museum) ... ... ... ... 73

The case of Molaise's Gospels (under side), Irish work, early eleventh century. (Photographed from the

original in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy) ... ... ... ... ... ... 79

Case of the Stowe Missal (under side), Irish work, early eleventh century, c. a.d. 1023. The centre ornament
seems to be a later addition. (Photographed from the original in the museum of the Royal Irish

Academy) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 81

Leather binding of St. Cuthbert's Gospels. (Diagram from the original at Stony hurst College) ... ... 85

A monk transcribing a book ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... S7

Binding of the book which Henry I. and subsequent kings of England are said to have used at their corona-
tion. (Photographed from the original in the British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... 91

French binding, fifteenth century ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 94

Binding in green velvet with silver ornaments, on a book once belonging to Marguerite, wife of James IV. of

Scotland. (Photographed from the original in the British Museum) ... ... ... .. 96

Binding of a breviary (front), fifteenth century, German hand-wrought leather ... ... ... ... 98

German binding in hand-wrought leather, fifteenth century ... ... ... ... ... ... 99

Binding of a breviary (back), fifteenth century, German hand-wrought leather ... ... ... ... IOO

Ancient bookbinders at work, from a " Book of Trades " ... ... ... ... ... ... 115

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xv

PAGE

Wrought silver binding. (From the original in South Kensington Museum) ... ... ... ... 118

Silver binding pierced and engraved, German, early eighteenth century. (From the original in South

Kensington Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 119

Fig. I. — Early English plan of arranging ornamental stamps ... ... ... ... ... ... 121

Fig. 2. — Netherlandish plan of arrangement ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 121

Fig. 3. — German plan ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 122

Fig. 4. — English adaptation of German plan ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 122

Binder's shop, from a sixteenth-century " Book of Trades '" ... ... ... ... ... ... 123

Bookbinder's tool and impression, sixteenth century. (From the original in the British Museum) ... ... 123

Binding of a German Bible, now in the National Museum, Nuremberg, late fifteenth century ... ... 127

Binding of Postilla Thome de Aquino in Job, C. Fyner, Esslingen 1474, central panel hand-wrought, border

stamped. (From the original in the British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... 129

Netherlandish binding, late fifteenth or early sixteenth century ... ... ... ... ... 130

Stamped leather binding, French design, early sixteenth century. (From the original in the library of

Worcester Cathedral) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 132

French panel-stamp, early sixteenth century ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 133

Wood-cut from Caxton's "The Game and Play of the Chess," a.d. 1481 ... ... ... ... 134

Panel-stamp with arms of Edward IV. (From the unique original in the library of Westminster Abbey) ... 139

Panel used D3' Richard Pynson and other binders, early sixteenth century ... ... ... ... 140

Panel-stamp with Richard Pynson's mark. (From the original in the British Museum) ... ... ... 141

Panel-stamp (obverse), used by John Reynes. Arms of Henry VII., and Tudor rose. (From a binding in

the parish library of King's Norton, now in Birmingham Free Library) ... ... ... ... 142

Panel-stamp (reverse), used by Julian Notarj-, bearing his mark. (From the binding of "Cicero's Orations,"

printed by Jean Petit, Paris, 1509) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 143

Panel-stamp (obverse), used by Julian Notary. (From the binding of "Cicero's Orations," printed by Jean

Petit, Paris, 1509) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 144

Panel-stamp (reverse), used by John Reynes, early sixteenth century. (From a volume in the parish library

of King's Norton, now in Birmingham Free Library) ... ... ... ... ... ... 145

Panel containing early arms of Henry VIII., from a binding by a London stationer, G. R. (From a specimen

in the parish library of King's Norton, now in Birmingham Free Library) ... ... ... ... 146

Panel used by the London stationer G. R. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 147

Panel-stamp (obverse), with arms of Henry VIII. (From the binding of a collection of tracts printed by

Wynkyn de Worde) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 14S

Panel-stamp (reverse), with arms of Queen Katherine of Aragon. (From the binding of a collection of tracts

printed by Wynkyn de Worde) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 149

Stamped-leather binding, by J. R., representing St. George and the Dragon, early sixteenth century ... 151
Panel-stamp of Jehan Moulin, a Rouen stationer, who visited England early in the sixteenth century. (From

a specimen in the library of Worcester Cathedral) ... ... ... ... ... ... 153

Gerard Wansfost's mark, c. 1500 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 155

Roll-stamp, with initials of Gerard Wansfost and another early stationer ... ... ... ... 155

Heraldic border from stamped-leather binding, English, early sixteenth century. (From a specimen in the

library of Lichfield Cathedral) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... ... 157

Small oaken case in " Old Chelsea Church," containing ten books, five chained ... ... ... ... 163

A bookcase for chained books, showing the usual arrangement of a mediaeval library. (Drawn from the

original in Hereford Cathedral Library) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 165

Double book : two books in one binding (each opening the reverse way to the other), sides and back

embroidered, edges gauffered. New Testament and Psalms, 1630. (British Museum) ... ... 166

Binding of Holy Bible, 1646, embroidered in coloured silks and gold thread on white satin. (From the

original in the British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 168

Book-cover of blue velvet embroidered with silver purl. (From the original in South Kensington Museum) 169

Binding embroidered with silver and gold purl. (South Kensington Museum) ... ... ... ... 170

Book-cover embroidered upon white satin, with a portrait of Charles I. (From a Book of Psalms, 1643, in

the British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 171

White satin book-cover embroidered with coloured silk, gold, silver, and seed-pearls, Dutch, seventeenth

century. (From the original in South Kensington Museum) ... ... ... ... ... 172

Italian fifteenth-century tooled binding. (Diagram from an example in the Bodleian Library) ... ... 174

xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Contemporary medal ol Aldus ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 176

Venetian gold-tooled commercial binding, early sixteenth century. (Diagram from an example in the

Bodleian Library) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 177

Maioli binding, Italian, early sixteenth century ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 178

Grolier binding, French, early sixteenth century ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 179

Grolicr binding, French, early sixteenth century ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 181

French binding in gilt calf decorated with cameos in gold, c. 1554- Upon " Francisci Petrarchas opera omnia,"

much reduced. (From the British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 184

Bookbinding from the collection of the Emperor Charles V. ... ... ... ... ... ... 185

Binding of a manuscript of " Relations des Funerailles d'Anne de Bretagne," whose arms and initials it bears,

c 1550 ■•• 187

Binding with the arms of Henry II. of France, and the monogram of Dianne de Poytiers and Henry II. ... 188

Binding displaying the arms of Anne de Montmorency, Constable of France, r. 1560 ... ... ... 190

Binding said to have been executed by Nicholas Eve for Etienne de Nully, whose arms and monogram it

bears, c. 15S2 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 193

French gold-tooled binding in the Eve style. Monogram R.R. RPJ and g Ferme. (From the Collection of

H. S. Richardson, Esq.) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 195

Arms of President de Thou and his second wife, Gasparde de la Chastre. (From the binding of a folio,

A.D. l6ll) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 196

Binding by Clovis Eve for J. A. de Thou, with his coat-of-arms as used before his first marriage ... ... 197

Binding from the Collection of President de Thou, with his coat-of-arms as used before his first marriage.

(From the Spencer Library) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 198

Institutio Societatis Jesu. Rome, 1587. Mosaic work by Padeloup. (From the French National Library) ... 203

Monnier binding, Paris, 1690 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 205

Arabesque ornaments used by Hans Holbein, and supposed to have been brought by him from Venice ... 206
" Book of Hours " of Mary I. of England, bound in velvet with silver mountings. (Photographed from the

original at Stonyhurst College) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 211

Binding of a Bible given to Queen Elizabeth, 1584. (Copied from the original in the Bodleian Library) ... 213
Embroidered binding on a book given by Archbishop Parker to Queen Elizabeth. (From the original in the

British Museum, much reduced) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 215

" Udall's Sermons " (London, 1596). Arms of Queen Elizabeth embroidered on the binding ... ... 216

Queen Elizabeth's Golden Manual of Prayers. The binding is of gold enamelled, and is said to be the work

of George Heriot. (Photographed from the original in the possession of C. J. Wertheimer, Esq.) ... 219
Binding of "A Meditation upon the Lord's Prayer" (London, 1619) made for King James I. (Photographed

from the original in the British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 221

Binding of Elyot's "Image of Governance" (London, 1541), printed by Thomas Berthelet, and probably bound

by him for Henry VIII. Reduced. (Photographed from the original in the British Museum) ... 224
Binding of "Petri Bembi Cardinalis Historise Venetian," printed at Venice 1 55 1, and probably bound in England

by Thomas Berthelet, in 1552, for Edward VI. Reduced. (Photographed from the original in the

British Museum) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 226

Portrait of John Day, printer and bookbinder ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 227

Ornament from a panel of a binding made for Queen Elizabeth ... ... ... ... ... 236

"Declaration of Faith" (London, 1729). Binding in red morocco with rich gold tooling, cottage-roof style.

(Attributed to Elliot and Chapman) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 238

Portrait of Roger Payne. (Copied from a contemporary etching done for Tom Payne the bookseller) ... 243
Morocco binding by Roger Payne, gold and blind tooled, a cameo inserted in the centre of each cover, upon

"Virgilius," Venice, 1505. (From the Cracherode Collection in the British Museum) ... ... 244

Binding in embossed and gold-tooled leather. By Mr. Cedric Chivers of Bath ... ... ... ... 249

Book-cover, chip carving ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 255

Specimen of a punched and wheeled leather binding done by a pupil of Miss L. M. Foster, of West Hackhurst,

Abinger, Dorking ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 256

Back of binding by Mr. T. J. Cobden-Sanderson ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 259

Binding by Mr. T. J. Cobden-Sanderson ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 259

Binding in green morocco gold-tooled, by Mr. T. J. Cobden-Sanderson ... ... ... ... ... 260

Centre ornament, Netherlandish, late sixteenth century ... ... ... ... ... ... 267

Engraved ivory guard to a palm-leaf manuscript. (Photographed from the original in the Bodleian Library) 270

PART I.
BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION: THE EARLIEST RECORDS OF PREHISTORIC MAN.

ITTLE is known of the arts which first occupied the thought and
attention of man, contributed to his comfort or adornment, supplied his
wants, or assisted in the defence of his position and home. It can
hardly be expected that anything aiding the refinement of life and
appealing to the aesthetic side of human nature, such as the records of
primitive literature, should have survived the countless changes which
have happened since man first made his appearance upon the earth.
In the absence of definite information it may be supposed that the arts originated
partly in necessity, partly in accident. But art instincts seem to have been natural
to man always, the beautiful objects around him — Nature's ornaments — served, perhaps,
as models for the earliest human handiwork ; strange as it may appear, the earliest
men have left records behind them of objects which were familiar to them, but to us
are known only by tradition or fossil remains.

As to the means employed by the nations of antiquity to record their thoughts and
their impressions of things around them, we, who live at the end of the nineteenth
century, have knowledge ; but long before the Christian era, through the Roman, Greek,
and Hebrew times, through many centuries, we may pass to the earliest Egyptian
or Babylonian dynasties and find the records of a civilisation, which even then was old.
There we must pause, for between the first, or drift, period of the stone age and the
earliest historic epoch there is a lapse of time so great that it may, probably, be
numbered by thousands of years,1 — a time so remote that the reindeer was abundant in
the south of France, and the mammoth had not entirely disappeared from the shores
1 W. Maskell, "Ivories," p. 6.

4 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

of the Mediterranean.1 From this dim and distant past, earlier than the age of iron
or bronze, earlier than the age of polished stone, have come down to us representations
of men, animals, and boats cut here and there upon the face of a cliff in Scandinavia, or
Siberia, or the Maritime Alps, as well as fragments of ivory and bone carved by the
hands of prehistoric artists.

Theories of the origin of civilisation should find no place in a book devoted to the
outward garb of literature ; but it may be well to remember that man, either in the course
of many generations gradually rose to a high state of civilisation, or that he appeared
upon the earth fully equipped with mental faculties of a high order, clever, thoughtful,
intelligent, and was, in fact, civilised at the time of his creation. In favour of the latter
theory, which of course is Biblical, it may be urged that barbarity and civilisation may
exist contemporaneously. The bushmen of Africa and the Australian aborigines exist
contemporaneously with ourselves ; so the savages of the neolithic period may have
been contemporary with the early civilised communities of Central Asia. But the
sequence of events in the world's history has been so strangely interrupted by physical
catastrophy that it is impossible to lay down laws for the gradual development of
mankind from primitive savagery to a state of high cultivation. Between the first and
second period of man's appearance there is an absolute gulf, which neither geologists
nor historians have yet been able to cross ; this in Chinese, Assyrian, and Hebrew
writings may be typified by the Flood ; some geologists, indeed, say that a second glacial
epoch intervened between the earlier and later stone ages.2 The discoveries of science
during the last half-century show a number of converging probabilities pointing to man's
first appearance on the earth along with great animals at a definite geological period.3
Recent discoveries in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile prove that men dwelt in
communities civilised to an extent hitherto unsuspected at an earlier period than was
previously assigned to the creation of the world ; and it is from the records of these
nations — veritable books of the ancients — that we may hope to find a clue to the
vexed question of the evolution, age, and origin of mankind.

The first traces of the existence of man appear in the inter- or post-glacial deposits,
the gravel beds and cave floors where, among the bones of the mammoth, the bear, and
hippopotamus, now extinct, and with those of oxen, stags, and red-deer of a still
living species, are found the evidence of man's handiwork in stone tools adapted equally
for cutting, digging, or striking. It is a mark of extreme antiquity that most of these
tools are shaped but unpolished fragments of pebbles or of pieces of stone detached by
natural causes and obtainable hard by. They have been struck with other stones, so
as to produce cutting edges and a symmetrical form. They have been found in France,
Spain, Italy, Greece, Algeria, Upper and Lower Egypt (it is said in the conglomerate
slabs of which the tombs of the kings are built), Palestine, India, and even in Canada

1 Sir J. Lubbock, "The Origin of Civilisation."

3 Dr. Geikie and Mr. Skertchly, quoted by W. J. Harrison, F.G.S., "Geology of the Counties of
England,'' p. 792.

3 S. R. Pattison, " The Age and Origin of Man."

THE EARLIEST RECORDS OF PREHISTORIC MAN. 5

and North America, — all substantially of the same type, lying under similar conditions,
of the same geological age, and apparently testifying of the same social epoch.1

Of the manner of life led by the oldest inhabitants of this earth, who used these
stone tools, and whose period is hence called paleolithic, little is known, beyond the
bare facts that they lived chiefly by the chase, and had implements not of metal, but
of stone, wood, and horn only. They had axes, spears, bows and arrows, needles, and
probably querns or hand-mills. They dwelt in caves and rock shelters. They possessed
certain artistic instincts, and could produce carvings on stone, on mammoth tooth,
or reindeer horn. Various animals, such as the ibex, mammoth, horse, and reindeer,
and snakes and fish, are represented ; and at least one example has been found of the
likeness of a man armed with a spear. These carvings are executed with a
surprising degree of truthfulness to nature and a knowledge of drawing wonderful
in its exactness. The most skilful sculptor of modern times would, probably, not
succeed very much better, if his graver were a splinter of flint and stone and bone
were the materials to be engraved.2 A mystery surrounds these early carvings ;
they are so excellent that they cannot be compared with the rude and con-
ventional scratchings of the modern Esquimaux. It would seem that for numberless
generations after the palaeolithic men had passed away their descendants lost all the
old power and skill of portraying men and beasts of the field with truthfulness. Dark
ages came, similar to, but incomparably longer in duration than, those which followed
the halcyon days of Greece and Rome.3 The remains of the later, or neolithic, age are
singularly deficient in vestiges of art, and no representation, however rude, of any
animal has yet been found in any of the Danish shell-mounds. Even objects of the
bronze age, and the coarse pottery of later times, exhibit few carved lines, or representa-
tions of animals.4 Amongst a great portion of the inhabitants of the earth the use of
ornamental art was for a- time dormant. From that epoch of the world's history there
is little that can be said to have suggested improvement in art or literature. On the
contrary, the carvings done by the men of the early stone age may be regarded as
prehistoric picture-books ; they are, indeed, the prototypes of all literature and all art.
For, as the letters of the alphabet now in use were derived from hieroglyphics, so
were the hieroglyphics copied from the animal and vegetable forms familiar to our
remote ancestors.

It is not improbable that these early carvings may have been the means of
communication between men, conveying a definite meaning and answering the purpose
of letters.

How many years passed between the shaping of the first flint and the moulding
of the first bronze weapon is not known ; but it is certain that men used stone before
they used bronze and iron, and that some tribes were in the stone age when others

1 S. R. Pattison, "The Age and Origin of Man." p. 11.
8 Boyd Dawkins, " Cave-hunting," p. 344.

3 W. Maskell, "Ivories, Ancient and Mediaeval," p. 12.

4 Sir J. Lubbock, "The Origin of Civilisation."

6 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

had found out the value of metals. The three ages overlap and run into each other like
the three chief colours of the rainbow.1 Notwithstanding this there cannot be any doubt
about the immense antiquity of the early carvings ; their great age is self-proven, since
they can only have been executed by men who were contemporary with the now extinct
animals represented, — the cave bear and the woolly elephant.

But, it may be asked, what of the antiquity of books, and where are we to place
the starting-place of written records ?

We may travel along the course of history for over six thousand years from the
present time, and then find people living a busy, active, civic life, similar in many respects
to our own, carrying on various trades and occupations, able to express their thoughts in
writing by means of symbols to which arbitrary meanings were attached, and possessing
books of history, philosophy, science, religion, and fiction. Beyond this point we
cannot proceed with certainty. Therefore, leaving the regions of speculation, where no
certain foothold can be had, we commence this account of the books of the ancients
upon the firm ground of historic times in Babylonia and Egypt. Bookbinding can
scarcely be said to have been practised as an art till early in the present era ; till then
books were not generally made in the folded or flat form, and the coverings of ancient
rolls, however elaborately finished, cannot strictly be called bookbindings.
1 E. Clodd, " The Childhood of the World," p. 27.

PREHISTORIC CARVING, IN OUTLINE ON SLATE, REPRESENTING A GROUP OF REINDEER.

{From the original in the British Museum.)

CHAPTER II.1

RECORDS OF THE EARLIEST NATIONS— THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN

BOOKS.

F all Eastern nations whose glory has departed, the Babylonians and
Assyrians have left the most extensive records of their national
history and attainments. It is owing to the wisdom displayed by
these ancient peoples in the choice of an almost imperishable material,
viz., baked clay, upon which to record their thoughts and their
experiences, that after the lapse of many thousand years we are now
able to read accounts of events which happened in the Euphrates
Valley before the patriarch Abraham dwelt in the land of the Chaldees, as well as
the particulars of the later wars between Assyria and the kings of Israel and Judah.
During the first fifty years of the present reign astonishing progress was made
in the knowledge of Assyrian language. When the first edition of this book appeared
in 1837, Mr. Hannett wrote the following passage in reference to cuneiform inscriptions :
" To this class the Babylonian bricks belong, the inscriptions on which doubtless were
intended for the propagation of science, to the inculcation of some special facts, or the
record of some useful memorial. And though the meaning of tJiese inscriptions is
unknown, the preservation of some of the bricks through a period of some thousand
years proves that the ancients rightly calculated on the mode they adopted in
perpetuating their discoveries." Here we have the beginning of enlightenment ; now,
thanks to the researches of Layard, Rawlinson, Smith, Sayce, Budge, and other scholars,
the cuneiform writing may be read with tolerable accuracy.

In the alluvial plains to the north of the Persian Gulf, where the mighty rivers
Tigris and Euphrates flowed through a land abounding with the remains of ancient
civilisation, dwelt an archaic people, who spoke an agglutinative language 2 akin to those

1 The head-piece represents Assur-bani-pal, a great patron of literature, and his queen. From the
01 iginal carving in the British Museum.

3 In an agglutinative language the relations of grammar are expressed by coupling words together,
each of which retains an independent meaning of its own — e.g., e-mes-na — of houses ; literally, houses-

7

8 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

of the modern Turks or Finns.1 They were related to the tribes who continued to
maintain themselves in the mountains of Elam down to a late day, and were of a
different stock from their Semitic conquerors. They have been called Accadians. It is
related in the Bible 2 that at a very early period Nimrod, the son of Cush, led an invasion
from the east into the land of Shinar, where he built Babel (Babylon), Erech, Accad, and
Calneh. Afterwards the kingdom was extended to the north of Babylonia. " Out
of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah."
Thus the two great nations were of one stock, Assyria in the north being colonised from
Babylonia in the south ; but there remained the former people of the land, whose
presence exercised an influence upon the after history and literature of the two nations.
The Semitic invaders soon discovered the value of the fine clay of the plains : " And
it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of
Shinar ; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make bricks
and burn them thoroughly. And they had bricks for stone, and slime had they for
mortar." 3 Moreover, they used the clay for writing material, and stored the clay records
in their brick-built palaces.

The Semitic Babylonians and Assyrians owe to their predecessors, the Accadians
the knowledge of most of the arts of civilisation, especially that of writing, which was
not the invention but the heritage of the Semitic people.4 Cuneiform writing owes its
name to the wedge-\\ke characters of which it is composed (Latin cuneus, = a wedge).
These characters were once pictorial like the hieroglyphics of Egypt ; they were so used
by the early Accadians, and in a modified form by their conquerors.5 The writing was
at first inscribed in outline upon stone, bronze, or other substance. But when clay
became the common writing material, and the scribes found it difficult to impress the
complicated picture characters upon that substance easily and quickly ; they seem
gradually to have transformed the old picture-writing into conventional signs of greater
simplicity. The writing, when made upon soft clay, was impressed by means of a stylus,
an instrument of wood, bone, or metal, having a point of three unequal facets, as in the
example of a bronze stylus found in the north-west palace of Nineveh, and now in the
British Museum. When the writing was finished the bricks were baked in the kiln, and
small holes were made in the clay (it is supposed) to allow the escape of moisture which

many-of. The people who speak agglutinative language are more or less deficient in the power of
abstraction.

1 " Records of the Past," new series, vol. i. ■ Genesis x. 8 — 1 1. 3 Ibid., xi. 2, 3.

4 Professor A. H. Sayce, " The Hibbert Lectures, 1887." King Entenna is supposed to have
reigned over Babylonia B.C. 4200 ; and before his time the land was ruled by Patesis, or governors, of
whom inscriptions have been found in the mounds of Telloh. The period of the Patesis is therefore
placed as far back as the fourth millenium before the Christian era. The writing of the Babylonians
of this period, when on hard materials like bronze or stone, was linear, resembling that of the early
kings, and was not then cuneiform, which proves that the shape of the characters, when written on
clay, was in a great measure owing to the peculiar qualities of that material. See Professor A. H.
Sayce and M. A. Amiaud in " Records of the Past."

' The oldest specimens of Babylonian picture-writing yet brought to England are the inscriptions
of Entenna and Sargon I. (c. 4200 — 3800 B.C.), now in the British Museum.

RECORDS OF THE EARLIEST NATIONS. g

would have caused the brick to bulge or crack. The bricks differ in colour according to
the degree of baking ; many of them are as perfect now as they were three thousand years
ago, but many also have reached this country in fragments. The clay of some of the
tablets is as fine as that of our best modern pottery, and must have been well kneaded,
and perhaps ground in a mill, before it was ready for use.1 In the more southern country

BABYLONIAN' CONTRACT-TABLET OF BAKED CLAY, WITH SEAL-IMPRESSIONS.

Dated eighth day of Sebat, accession year of Neriglissar, King of Babylon, b.c. 560.
{Photographed from the original in the British Museum.)

of Babylonia, owing to the tablets being merely dried in the sun, very few perfect ones

from that region remain to our time. Clay writing-tablets were usually small, ranging in

size from 1 5 by 9 inches to 1 by ^ inch. They are generally of a quadrangular form,

1 E. A. Wallis Budge, M.A., " Babylonian Life and History," p. 108.

io BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

varying in thickness. Tablets, when of small size, could not easily be broken, and were
convenient to store and to hold in the hand. It was sometimes the practice to enclose
one tablet within another, thus forming a case to the original inscription ; these are
called case-tablets. Examples are exhibited in the Kouyunjik Gallery at the British
Museum among the contract-tablets, the most ancient in the collection belonging to a
period about B.C. 2500. Each tablet was dated by the regnal year of the king and the
day of the month ; the name of the scribe and the place of writing were often added ; and
in Babylonia it was the custom for each witness to impress his seal upon the tablet.
Sometimes a tablet bore as many as sixteen impressions of seals, and the seals and
inscription frequently appear on the case as well as on the tablet itself. Business
transactions were recorded in this way ; and the sale of a house or a field, or the loan
of so many shekels of silver, would be witnessed and sealed by as many people as
a charter or grant made by a mediaeval English king. Tablets served for literary,
commercial, domestic, and general purposes, and appear to have been made in countless
numbers.

But in many respects the most interesting of all the records of the Assyrians are the
foundation cylinders : upon them were inscribed, in characters wonderfully minute,
accounts of the erection of palaces and temples, the titles and achievements of mighty
kings, and events in the history of the nation. By these inscriptions the earliest dates
in Assyrian chronology are fixed, and from them we may learn that there were
antiquaries even among the nations of antiquity.

Among the ruins of the temple of the sun-god at Sippara was discovered a cylinder
of King Nabonidus, the last king of the new Babylonian Empire, who flourished till
B.C. 539, when Cyrus captured the great city, defeated Belshazzar, the king's son, and
established the Persian rule as recorded upon the cylinder here represented. The
inscription on the cylinder of Nabonidus relates how the king, fired with antiquarian zeal,
caused an excavation to be made among the foundations of the temple in the hope of
finding the original record of the foundation by Naram-sin, an early king of Babylonia.

" I sought for its old foundation stone, and 1 8 cubits deep I dug into the ground,
and the foundation stone of Naram-sin, the son of Sargon, which for three thousand two
hundred years no king who had gone before me had seen, the Sun-God, the great lord of
E-Babara, the temple of the seat of the goodness of his heart, let me see, even me." '

This passage is an important help to chronology since it proves that in the opinion
of Nabonidus, a king who delighted in investigating the history of his country, his
predecessor Naram-sin reigned three thousand two hundred years before his own time,
or about B.C. 3700. But we know from an independent source that Naram-sin reigned
about B.C. 37SO, so the record of the foundation of his temple carries us back over
five thousand six hundred years from the present time, at which period it was customary
to record in a permanent manner the erection of buildings such as temples and palaces.
The barrel-shaped cylinder of Nabonidus may be seen in the British Museum.

The foundation cylinders at present brought to this country appear to have been
' Professor A. H. Sayce, " Records of the Past," new series, vol. i., p. 5.

RECORDS OF THE EARLIEST XATIO.XS. H

used for special purposes. They are often small, not exceeding a foot in height, barrel-
shaped, hexagonal or round ; but some of larger size, having six, eight, or ten sides, have
been found in the foundations of Assyrian palaces. They are usually hollow, having
two flat ends, with a circular hole in each. This has led to the belief that the clay of
which the)' are composed was turned on a wheel. It would be possible to run a
rod through some of them, but whether this was actually done we cannot say. The
Babylonian barrel-shaped cylinders usually contain historical inscriptions. Some of the
large Assyrian cylinders are inscribed with the annals of the kings. For example, those
in the National Collection contain, among other matters of interest, an account, written
by a contemporary scribe, of the siege of Jerusalem by Sennacherib, and the defeat of
Hezekiah, King of Judah, B.C. 705 — 681 ; and on. another hexagonal cylinder are inscribed
the annals of Esarhaddon, and the submission of Manasseh, King of Judah, to that

TERRA-COTTA

1APED CYLINDER CONTAINING THE HISTORY OE THE CAPTURE OF BABYLON BY CYRL'i

(Photographed from the original in the British Museum.*)

monarch, B.C. 681 — 668. Most of the cylinders at present examined belong to the kings
of the new Babylonian Empire, founded B.C. 625, but others are of greater antiquity ;
and there can be no doubt that the practice of burying records in order to preserve
them was the rule in Babylonia in very remote times.

On some of the carved wall slabs found among the ruins of Assyrian palaces the
figures of scribes are represented writing upon a flexible material, probably parchment
or papyrus paper. Owing to the perishable nature of these substances many valuable
records are now irrecoverably lost. The various uses of leather were certainly known to
the people dwelling between the two rivers, and they seem to have written upon most
substances capable of being written upon ; it is probable that for certain purposes
prepared leather, or parchment, was extensively used as writing material. We know that
papyrus paper was in use among the Babylonians at a very early period ; for under the
name of gis-li-khu-'si (grass of guiding), or gis-zu (vegetable of knowledge), it is frequently

12 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

referred to in the colophons of clay inscriptions. The Assyrian name was am, literally,
" leaf." The papyrus reed grew plentifully along the banks of the Euphrates, and like
the clay was easily rendered suitable for writing upon.

These wonderful people had not only books of clay, leather, and paper ; they also
made records on iron, bronze, glass, and stone. Upon the latter were carved in relief
scenes illustrating the lives of Assyrian kings, and almost invariably a long inscription in
cuneiform characters explained the carving across which it was written. Stone records
are often of immense size ; but not content with ornamenting the walls of their buildings,
the treat monarchs of the East made use of the sides of lofty mountains upon which to
leave a lasting memorial of their triumphs. The rock-hewn records of Assyria are the
largest books in the world ; they are besides polyglots, the inscriptions often being
repeated in three languages. We are reminded of a description of one of these great
records discovered by Sir Henry Rawlinson upon the face of a precipitous rock at
Behistan on the western frontier of Media, — a great triumphal tablet and inscription of
Darius Hystapis. Upon it are the figures of the victorious king, with his attendants
and ten vanquished chiefs. Over the figures is an inscription in three languages
extending to nearly a thousand lines of cuneiform writing. The preservation of this
mighty record is probably due to the inaccessibility of its position, 400 feet above the
plain. Like King Alfred's White Horse upon the Berkshire Downs, it can be seen from
far across the country, and may have had the effect of awing the conquered inhabitants
of the plain into quiet submission to the conqueror's will.

With the increase of books libraries became necessary, and accordingly we find that
the Babylonians and Assyrians not only had books, but kept them in libraries under the
care of librarians. The first great library about which we know anything was
established by the ancient hero Sargon I. (B.C. 3800), founder of the Semitic Empire
in Chaldzea, at his capital Agade, or Accad, near Sippara. The seal, of beautiful
workmanship, of the librarian, by name Ibnisarru, is now preserved at Paris.1 At
Babylon, still buried beneath the accumulated rubbish of centuries, there may yet be
hundreds of precious manuscripts belonging to the library we know .to have been
founded by the rulers of that great city, but at present very few books have been
brought from Babylon. There are, however, the records of the banking firm of the
Egibi family, which carried on its business from the time of Nebuchadnezzar and his
predecessors to that of Darius Hystapis. Layard and other early explorers found
and shipped to England many terra-cotta tablets from the ruins of Nineveh. It is
from the great library of that city that most of the Assyrian records now in Europe
have come. This library occupied one of the upper rooms in the palace of Assur-
bani-pal at Kouyunjik (the modern name of Nineveh). It is thus described by
Professor Sayce : —

"It stood within the precincts of the Temple of Nebo, and its walls were lined
with shelves, on which were laid the clay books of Assyria, or the rolls of papyrus
which have long since perished. The library consisted for the most part of copies
1 " Records of the Past," new series, vol. i., p. 5.

THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN ', BOOKS.

or editions of older works that had been brought from Babylon and diligently copied
by numerous scribes, like the ' Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, King
of Judah, copied out.' The library had been transferred from Calah by Sennacherib

OCTAGONAL TERRA-COTTA ASSYRIAN CYLINDER.

(Photographed from the original in the British Museum.)

towards the latter part of his reign. ... It was open to all comers, and Assur-bani-pal
did his best to attract ' readers.' . . . The library of Kouyunjik (Nineveh) shared in the
common overthrow of the city. Its papyri and leathern scrolls were burned with fire,
and the clay books fell in shattered confusion among the ruins below. There they lay

1 4 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

for more than two thousand years, covered by the friendly dust of decaying bricks, until
Sir A. H. Layard discovered the old library and revealed its contents to the world of
to-day. His excavations have been followed by those of Mr. George Smith and Mr.
Hormuzd Rassam, and the greater portion of Assur-bani -pal's library is now in the
British Museum." 1

We are told that the name of the chief librarian was Nebo-zuqub-yukin, and
that he held his office for thirty-two years — i.e., from the sixth year of the reign of
Sargon (King of Assyria B.C. 716) to the twenty-second of Sennacherib (B.C. 684). He
does not seem to have quitted Calah, but another librarian or governor of the House
of Books must have been appointed. There is in the British Museum a human skull
beaten in by a heavy blow. This skull was found in the library and treasury of the
palace of Sennacherib. It is thought to have been the head of a warder or sentinel
who was slain defending his post when the Medes and Babylonians stormed the devoted
city in the year 609 B.C. But it is as likely to be the head of the librarian, who met
with his death in the place which was dearest to him, surrounded by his thousands of
volumes of baked clay.2 The library here described was only one of many great
collections which once were treasured in the cities of Assyria and Babylonia ; and it
should be mentioned that none of the tablets at present found in this library are older
than the eighth century before our era, though the records they contain refer to periods
far more remote.

It is remarkable that for nearly sixteen centuries after the fall of Nineveh the very
existence of cuneiform writing was forgotten. The inscriptions on temples and palaces
were noted by generations of travellers, and the most extravagant theories formed to
account for the curious wedge-like characters. Some said they were magical signs
made by the Magi of old, others that they were the work of devils or of worms. By
some they were regarded as only architectural ornament. It first occurred to the ambas-
sador of Philip III. of Spain, Garcia de Sylva Figueroa by name, who visited Persepolis
in a.d. 16 1 8, that the mystic signs must be inscriptions. To the German Grotefend
belongs the honour of having discovered the key to decipher the language ; and Sir
Henry Rawlinson, by means of a bi- or tri-lingual inscription, was the first to read a
record of Darius and to decipher the accompanying Scythic and Assyro-Babylonian
texts. One of the difficulties encountered in deciphering cuneiform inscriptions was
that the characters were intended to express the sounds of a language wholly different
from that of the Assyrians, who adopted the characters but not the language of their
predecessors.

Here we may remark how true it is that history repeats itself ; for just as Latin
is now taught long after it has ceased to be a spoken language, so was the language
of the older inhabitants of Babylonia taught to the better educated classes among the
Semitic Babylonians down to the latest period of the empire. This, as Professor Sayce 3

1 Professor A. H. Sayce, "The Hibbert Lectures, 1887," p. 9—11.

3 E. Maunde Thompson, LL.D., "Address to the Library Association at Reading, 1890."

3 " Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments," By-paths of Bible Knowledge Series.

THE BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN BOOKS.

15

has shown, was necessary, because the conquerors accepted the old legal codes and
decrees upon which the interpreting of laws and the holding of property depended. In
course of time the two dialects of Sumic and Accad ceased to be spoken, but they
remained as the languages of the learned. The ancient literature also consisted partly
of magical formulae for warding off the assaults of evil spirits, and partly of a collection
of hymns to the gods, used by the priests as a service-book. The latter was still used
by the Semitic Babylonians, but was provided with an interlined translation into the
Babylonian or Assyrian language, resembling in this respect the modern service-books
used in this country by the Church of Rome.

ASSYRIAN CLAY TABLET.

(Showing the form of the letters in a cuneiform inscription.)

Apart from the interest naturally felt in the history and literature of an ancient
nation like the Babylonians, there is for English people the further reason for examining
the cuneiform writings, since in these, and in these alone, may be found confirmation
of the historical events recorded in the early chapters of the Bible, as well as of the
later history of the Hebrew nation until carried into captivity by the Assyrian kings.
It was from Ur of the Chaldees, now represented by the mounds of Mukeyyer on the
Euphrates, that the patriarch Abraham made his way to the future home of his
descendants in the west, carrying with him the accounts of the creation, of the deluge,
and of the re-settlement of the descendants of Noah, which events are found recorded
on Assyrian tablets differing in general outline but little from the accounts long
familiar to all the nations of Europe from the study of the Hebrew Scriptures.

1 6 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

The Assyrian clay books will yield to none in interest, they are sui generis ;
and it is on this account that, departing from the strict rule of chronology, they are here
placed before the records of Egypt. Although the Egyptian monarchy was founded
some two centuries before that of Babylon, its books can scarcely be said to date from
an earlier period. The Accadians were, like the Chinese, pre-eminently a literary people,
and we are told that their conception of chaos was that of a period when as yet
no books were written. A legend of the creation, preserved on a clay tablet found
in the library of Cathar, reads thus : " On a memorial tablet none wrote, none
explained, for bodies and produce were not brought forth in the earth." 1 This is
tantamount to saying that books were coaeval with the creation of man, which, if not
actually true, is nevertheless true in a measure.

1 Professor A. H. Sayce, " Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments."

INSCRIPTION CYLINDER.

(.Vow in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge.)

JVIIolblldiplMMloMI

'ii°iHHHH"i|°i'i°l|°lM"ti

l'ol|=.|IQ||n|g|IQIIcillailol|0||P||c|lJto||0||c||ciiiHTc

6tfPCf
3M <ff*6.

CHAPTER III.

THE RECORDS AND BOOKS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

GYPT, the mother of nations, collected her tribes and placed them under
the rule of King Menes four thousand four hundred years before our
era commenced.1 The race was of the Caucasian family, differing from
that of the negro in respect of their height, form, and colour ; they were
skilled both in science and art; moreover, like the old tribesmen in Asia,
they had knowledge of letters and writing. Under the earliest dynasties
art was purest and best. Afterwards foreign invasion and conquest
tended towards degeneration until in the eighteenth and twenty-sixth dynasties, after
long years of depression, a renaissance led men to return to the models which the
earlier people had made.

It may be that long before books, in the ordinary sense of the word, were
composed inscriptions and letters were written. In the earliest examples of writing
now known it is clear that at the time they were written the*'language had passed its
first change of form ; the rules of grammar were fixed, the foundations of style laid, and
the methods fully developed by which sense and sound were expressed. The earliest
hieroglyphics2 were carved in relief, and this has led to the theory that at first, to
express thoughts, actual objects were used. Herodotus3 relates that Darius, King of
Persia, having led an army far into the Scythian fastnesses, received from the Scythian
chief gifts consisting of a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows. " These gifts," said the
messenger, " mean that my master's arrows will surely destroy you, unless you can fly
through the air like a bird, burrow through the ground like a mouse, or make your way
through the swamps like a frog." It has been argued that this method of conveying a
message is not an isolated instance, and that the first hieroglyphics were but a convenient
form of object-writing ; in brief, that symbolism by means of objects was earlier than

1 Brugsch's chronology is followed.

2 Amelia B. Edwards, "Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers," p. 240.

3 Herodotus, Book IV., chaps, exxxi., exxxii.

17 2

18 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

symbolism by means of signs.1 This is a taking theory, but for the present it remains
uncorroborated, because on none of the monuments has writing been found in the
primitive stage when ideas and everything animate and inanimate depended for repre-
sentation upon pictures, and pictures had not yet assumed the value of sounds.
There are, however, three forms of Egyptian writing known to us : —

1. The hieroglyphic (or picture-writing), which appears sculptured or painted upon
the monuments.

2. The hieratic (or priest's writing), a cursive or running form of the hieroglyphic,
used for books, and documents, generally written on papyrus, or other ordinary writing
material.

3. The demotic (or people's writing), a still later development of the cursive hand,
specially needed by the trading part of the community. It consisted of purely con-
ventional signs.

The oldest known hieroglyphic inscription belongs to the second dynasty, B.C. 4000.
(There is a carved stone in the Ashmolean Museum said to be of this period.) This
form of picture-writing was used till the final overthrow of the Egyptian monarchy by
the Romans.

The hieratic writing endured for a shorter period ; beginning in the time of the
twelfth dynasty it continued to be used for literary purposes down to the twenty-fourth
or twenty-fifth dynasty, till, finally, it was superseded by the demotic. It seems to have
been invented by the priests as a shorthand of their own employed for the purpose of
secrecy. For a time hieratic was permanently the hand of the literati. Tens of thousands
of hieratic papyri, chiefly extracts from " The Book of the Dead," besides works on
medicine and mathematics, tales, poems, essays, hymns, magical formulas, correspond-
ence, State papers, and the like, are now stored in the great libraries of Europe.2

Writings in the demotic hand are equally numerous. This hand was in use from
about B.C. 600 to A.D. 400; and it is found scrawled on all kinds of materials, on papyrus,
parchment, flakes of limestone, potsherds, and the like. The demotic documents
comprise law-deeds, accounts, letters, and miscellaneous memoranda of a trading
population.

For centuries the interpretation of these writings was lost. In 1799 a key was
discovered at Rosetta, the ancient Bolbitane, by a French officer while digging the
foundation of a house. This key is the famous Rosetta Stone, now one of the chief
objects of interest in the Egyptian Gallery at the British Museum. The stone contains
inscriptions in three kinds of writing: (1) hieroglyphic, (2) demotic, (3) Greek. The
inscriptions are imperfect, but a perfect duplicate has been found, and is now in the
museum of Boulak. It was not difficult to read the Greek inscription, and it was
soon discovered that the stone commemorated the munificence of Ptolemy Epiphanes
(B.C. 198) to the priests of Memphis, and that they in gratitude had ordered that

1 Amelia B. Edwards, "Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers," p. 239; "Guide to the British
Museum, 1890," p. 34.

2 Amelia B. Edwards, "Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers," p. 257.

THE RECORDS AND BOOKS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 19

the inscription should be engraved in hieroglyphical, enchorial, and Greek characters
upon hard stone, and a copy set up in most of the temples.1 It is this venerable stone
that has enabled Egyptologists to read the records of the Pharaohs, to reconstruct the
history, and to recover much of the literature of the ancient Egyptians. With the aid
of a magnifying-glass the characters of the inscription on the accompanying facsimile
of the Rosetta Stone may be clearly seen.

■ - . '■■ - j ' . ■ '
sfir.nz :- '> i' 1 j- ii= -* hit.

^fi-i'n,?2-iE+!i!.-jM:"l!:-<i''.''iIC-Ui"El:-J:.;,V.;i/-JlV

::,;._ ,■■■■■•■:; ■,,..,.■

^T=q' 1" jiiii ..¥.-:'i;i-. ■ vi ..■;;:,'-i.iiira'::--SSiMt(iiiU<;sfis:i
/;•--/'( ■ < -msi-<.-3+^aiai:rra<);i:iiuiDTag:.:::ii5!ii*<i!-

f^rerffife -< --r-"-1' ^=^ .-11 vii- , rm^anrt'fc

■ '■ ■■■■ '■'■ '.':; ' •"■■'. •

■ > - -■ , ^ *£P~ ■

THE ROSETTA STONE.

We have seen that among the Assyrians clay was the material par excellence used
for literary purposes. In Egypt the papyrus reed furnished the paper on which the
scribes chiefly wrote. From the country of the Pharaohs comes the oldest known paper
book in the world, the " Papyrus Prisse," which may be assigned to a date prior to the
twelfth dynasty, that is, at least 2400 years B.C. From this most venerable manuscript

1 E. A. Wallis Budge, M.A., D. Litt, "The Dwellers on the Nile," pp. 18—21.
Wilkinson's "The Egyptians in the Time of the Pharaohs," p. 192.

BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

the sequence can be maintained up to the volume now in the reader's hand. Besides

paper, the Egyptian scribes made use of stone, leather, wood, and other substances fit

to be written upon ; but while the glory of Egypt lasted no other writing material

altogether superseded papyrus. The Egyptian name for the reed seems to have been

P. apu, but the Greeks called it -Trdirvpo^ {papyros) ; the word (3v/3\o<; (bublos), also of

Egyptian origin, whence /3</3\o? (biblos), a book, was associated with the inner rind or

pellicles of the plant from which paper was made (see Theophrastus, " H. P.," 4, 8, 2, and

Liddell and Scott's Lexicon). Herodotus (v. 58) says that the plant annually springs up ;

after it is plucked from the marshes the top is cut off and converted to a different use

from the stem. The bottom part is left to the length of about a foot and a half, and is

sold as an eatable. The priests wear shoes made of the papyrus, the

f~- iiSb sails of Egyptian boats are made of it,1 and, he adds, the priests read to

him the names of three hundred and thirty kings out of a papyrus roll.2

He always calls the plant fivfiXos. It belongs to the family of Gra-

minacese, and there are several distinct species, one of which probably

is indigenous in the lakes of the Abyssinian lowlands, whence it may

have been brought to Northern Egypt by the early colonists ; it also -

grew in the Euphrates, and its uses were known to the early inhabitants

WJM of Babylonia. At the present time it grows spontaneously in enormous

quantities towards the head waters both of the Blue and White Nile,

but in Northern Egypt it has to be cultivated and maintained artifi-

BBBjfl cially. The Greek colonists seem to have taken the plant to Italy,

where it flourished in the swamps and rivers in the south of

Calabria and Sicily. The papyrus was to the Egyptians what the

bamboo is to the Japanese, — the staple material of the country. It

was used largely in the manufacture of ropes, sails, boats, mats, and

paper; the roots supplied 'the poorer people with food.3 So late as

the time of the Roman rule there were great paper manufactories on

HI the banks of the Nile. The paper there made was largely exported

to Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy, before the time of Herodotus,4 who

refers to it as in common use in his day. As time went on paper

gradually gave place to parchment, and at last was supplanted by it

about the tenth century after Christ.

In the manufacture of paper the thin concentric coats or pellicles
surrounding the triangular stalk of the papyrus were stripped off
(those nearest to the core, being the best and finest, were reserved
for the better kinds of paper). The tissues were then cut into strips of a certain length

1 To the Greeks also the various uses of papyrus seem to have been known. The statement of
Theophrastus that King Antigonus made the rigging of his fleet of this material is illustrated
by the passage in Homer (Odyssey, xxi. 390), where the poet says the ship's cable, on-Aov fivfiXivov,
wherewith the doors were fastened when Ulysses slew the suitors in his hall, was made of this material.

2 Herodotus, v. 48, etc. 4 Herodotus, v. 48.

3 Villiers Stuart, " Egypt after the War," 1883, p. 202.

EGYPTIAN ROLL OF
PAPYRUS.

(Photographed from
the original in the
British Museum.')

THE RECORDS AND BOOKS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 21

and placed on a board, another layer of tissue was then pasted over the first crosswise
so as to form a sheet of convenient thickness and consistency. This formed the pulp,
which, after being pressed and dried in the sun, was polished with a shell or other hard
and smooth substance. A number of these sheets when glued together lengthwise-formed
a roll, the most usual form of an Egyptian book ; but in very late times the flat form
of book was in use in Egypt.

The breadth of the roll was determined by the length of the strips taken from the
papyrus ; it would vary according to the nature of the book, but the usual breadth seems
to have been from 10 to 13 fingers, i.e., from about 7 to 9 inches. The length might be
carried to almost any extent, and varied according to the length of the writing. When
finished and rolled up tightly, the manuscripts present the appearance of cylindrical
pieces of wood. The hieroglyphics, whether written on papyrus or any other substance,
were generally divided by ruled lines into columns ; in manuscripts these columns are
narrow, measuring an inch or less in breadth, the symbols being placed under one
another and the columns arranged from right to left ; sometimes the symbols face
to the left, and are to be read from left to right in horizontal lines. The hieratic writing
runs in columns 6 to 8 inches wide in the direction of the length of the roll ; when
the scribe came to the bottom of the paper, he began a new page or column to the left of
the first, leaving between the first and second page a small blank strip. The hieratic ran
from right to left, and larger characters were used for the commencement of a paragraph,
as we should use a capital letter ; the Egyptians decorated their manuscripts with
miniatures in colour, and sometimes enclosed them in cases of curiously wrought and
gilded leather.

" In the land of Egypt nothing decays," runs the proverb ; and it is owing to the
wonderful climate and the consequent dryness of the soil that Egyptian books and
manuscripts of prodigious antiquity remain to our own days, witnessing to the high
state of culture attained by those ancient people of Egypt. Many of the historical
facts recorded in the papyri were unknown to the Greeks and Romans. The
manuscripts have lain buried in hermetically sealed tombs and jars for thousands of
years, and have only recently been brought to the light of day again. To us original
manuscripts of the Greek age are astonishing ; but what shall we say to a will written as
long before Alexander as Alexander lived before us ? Yet in Egypt Mr. W. Flinders
Petrie has discovered a will with a settlement, drawn up in proper legal manner, and in
precise phraseology, older than the time of Abraham.1 The preservation of many
manuscripts is due to the ancient Egyptians, who considered it right to bury richly
illuminated and beautifully written rolls in the coffins of their dead. The wrappings,
cases, and coffins of mummies often have extracts from " The Book of the Dead " written
upon them, as well as the names and titles of the deceased, and scenes representing the
final judgment before Osiris. The massive sarcophagi prepared for kings, queens, and
persons of rank or wealth were carved with scenes and inscriptions, in relief or intaglio,
chiefly extracts from religious books. It was also customary to bury with the dead
1 W. Flinders Petrie, Leisure Hour, December 1891.

22 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

painted wooden figures representing Ptah-Socharis-Osiris, a triad of sacred persons
connected with the resurrection of the body and the future life. In the nineteenth
dynasty (B.C. 1400 — 1266) these figures on their stands were made hollow, and papyri,
inscribed with religious compositions and decorated with coloured vignettes, were placed
in them ; at a later period cavities were sunk in the stands, to hold papyri and small
portions of the human body.1 These manuscripts were, in fact, guide-books to the next
world, " Baedekers " or " Murrays " to guide the defunct to the gates of Amenti, the

PART OF THE

m <4- t *■ y y *

SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER OF " THE BOOK OF THE 'DEAD,
OF THE HIEROGLYPHICS AND AN ILLUSTRATIVE

SHOWING THE ARRANGEMENT
VIGNETTE.

place of departed souls, with instructions as to prayers and magical formulae to be
uttered when confronted with wild-fowl, monsters, and demons who guarded the
sacred portals. They aptly illustrate the superstitious nature of the Egyptians.

As a typical example of a funeral papyrus of the best kind the Ani MANUSCRIPT
in the British Museum may appropriately be mentioned here. It is a long roll of fine
papyrus about 14 inches wide ; the writing is enclosed within a double border composed
of two lines of colour, the inner one of brick-red, the outer of dull yellow. The text is

1 See "Official Guide to the British Museum, 16
British Museum.

p. 117 ; and Nos. 975, 20,868, wall case 37

THE RECORDS AND BOOKS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 23

arranged in vertical columns, three-quarters of an inch wide, across the width of the
paper ; it is adorned at intervals with brightly coloured and well-drawn pictures and
vignettes, illustrating the passage of the souls of Ani and his wife to the abodes of bliss,
and representations of many strange gods. The papyrus was obtained from Egypt
for the Trustees of the British Museum in 1888 by Dr. E. A. Budge, and has been
reproduced in facsimile and fully described by Mr. P. Le Page Renouf.1 It contains a
series of chapters belonging to the collection of religious texts, referred to above, and
usually called " The Book of the Dead." Ani, the person whose name the roll bears, was
a royal scribe, a scribe of the sacred revenue of all the Gods of Thebes, and overseer
of the granaries of the Lords of Abydos. These offices were held only by persons of
great dignity, and this fact will account for the beauty of the papyrus. The figures of
Ani and his wife may be portraits ; doubtless they give a correct representation of the
costume of a great official of the court of Pharaoh at the end of the fourteenth century
before our era, to which date, the period of the eighteenth dynasty, the roll is ascribed.

Many papyrus rolls and writings of various kinds have been found in earthern
vessels buried in the ground. It seems to have been customary to place deeds of
houses and land in receptacles of this kind ; in earthenware jars they were protected
from injury both by damp and insects. This practice is well illustrated by a passage in
the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah. The word of the Lord came to the prophet in
prison in Jerusalem when besieged by the Babylonians, commanding him to buy a field
in Anathoth from his nephew Hanameel. Accordingly Jeremiah bought the field,
subscribed the evidence and sealed it, and gave the deeds to Baruch, saying, " Take
these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence
which is open ; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel ; Houses and fields and vineyards
shall be possessed again in this land." 2 Some day, perhaps, these hidden writings may
be found ; deeds buried centuries before the days of Jeremiah are preserved in many
of the great European libraries.

The oldest papyrus manuscript in the world, the Prisse papyrus in the archives
of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, has been alluded to before. This manuscript,
written by a scribe of the eleventh dynasty (about B.C. 2500), contains copies of two
much more ancient documents, one dating from the third (B.C. 3966 — 3800) and the
other from the sixth dynasty (B.C. 3300 — 3133)- The existence of this manuscript
proves that books were written in Egypt six thousand years ago, — a period so remote as
to seem almost incredible. Well might the preacher exclaim : " The thing that hath
been, it is that which shall be ; and that which is done is that which shall be done :
and there is no new thing under the sun." 3 But inscriptions have been found older by
fifteen centuries than the Prisse manuscript ; inscriptions cut in stone, as, for instance,
at the fourth-dynasty tombs at Gizeh, and the Oxford .tablet of the second dynasty.

1 "The Book of the Dead." Facsimile of the Papyrus of Ani, in the British Museum, 1890.

2 Jeremiah xxxii. 6 — 15.

3 Ecclesiastes i. 9.

24 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

The Egyptians not only possessed ancient books, but" great books also ; of the
latter " The Great Harris Papyrus," now in the British Museum, may serve as an
example. It was found with several others in a tomb behind Medinat Habu, and at
once purchased by A. C. Harris of Alexandria ; when unrolled it was found to be
133 feet long and i6f inches broad. It is now divided into seventy-nine leaves, and laid
down on cardboard. It relates to the achievements of Rameses III. Books of this
kind, usually rituals or copies of " The Book of the Dead," the most sacred of all the
Egyptian writings, were often written and illuminated by the scribes with wonderful
care. The implements and writing materials of the scribes may be seen in cases
in the British Museum ; they are very simple, consisting of reed pens, and perhaps
small brushes mounted on sticks, palettes of wood, stone, schist, ivory, etc., many
of them made to hold the pens as well as with rounded cavities, two to fourteen
in number, for the different coloured inks. Ordinary inscriptions on papyrus were
written in black ink, but certain passages were not unusually written in red, in
a manner similar to the rubrics in European manuscripts of the Middle Ages, and
in some editions of the Prayer Book at present in use. When objects were repre-
sented, as far as possible the natural colours were used. Thus the sun was depicted
red, the moon yellow, and trees green. Ink is known to have been made chiefly
from vegetable colours, and has wonderful permanency. Famous as was the great library
of Alexandria, there is reason to believe that its treasures were rivalled by those of
the great libraries of the earlier Pharaohs. In the time of the sixth dynasty, five
thousand years ago, there was an Egyptian official styled the " Governor of the House
of Books " ; and it is believed that libraries and librarians existed in that wonderful
land even in the days of the great pyramid-building kings.1

The literature of Egypt is chiefly religious, philosophical, and moral ; most of the
inscriptions and manuscripts now known came to us from tombs and temples. On
the other hand, the records of Babylonia and Assyria are mostly historical, being
derived from the ruins of palaces. But although Egyptian writings belong chiefly
to religion, savants are year by year discovering more and more about the history
of the Pharaohs' country. During the year 1892 accounts appeared in the leading
daily papers of " The Oldest Blue Book in the World," — State papers which had
quite as much bearing on the politics of the ancient East thirty-four centuries ago,
as any of the carefully worded pronouncements of Downing Street on the questions
of to-day.

By means of a number of little clay tablets covered with finely incised cuneiform
characters we are enabled to enter the Foreign Office of the Pharaohs of the sixteenth
century before the Christian era, and to read the minutest detail of one of the most
obscure portions of Oriental history. In the year 1887 an Arab woman, wandering
through the ruins of Tcl-el-Amarna, two hundred miles from Cairo on the banks of the
Nile, found upon the ground several curious clay tablets, called by the natives " pillons."
In all some three hundred tablets and fragments, varying in size from 2 inches to
1 E. Maunde Thompson, LL.D., "Address to the Library Association, Reading, 1890."

THE RECORDS AND BOOKS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 25

2 feet square, wore found; of this number one hundred and sixty found their way
to Berlin, and eighty-two to the British Museum.

The brilliant victories of Tothmes III. (B.C. 1600) had made Egypt mistress of
the East. The result of the great battle of Megiddo was that from the Nile to the
Euphrates all states and cities were made tributary to the Pharaohs, consuls and
residents were placed in most of the towns, and it was part of the consular
duty to keep up constant communication with the Egyptian court. Amenophis III.
(B.C. 1500 — 1466) carried out several campaigns in Syria, and during one of them
fell in love with and married Princess Thi, who introduced her own religion, the
worship of the solar disc, into the land. Amenophis IV., son of Queen Thi, married
two Asiatic princesses of Mitani, or Northern Mesopotamia. These conquests and
marriages led to much correspondence between the court of Egypt and that of
Mitani. In one letter the Babylonian king very politely asks his brother-in-law
vnt for gold ; in another the king of a small state near Aleppo sends tribute,
and asks for help against his neighbours the 1 Unites, who are threatening him; ag in
there arc a series of letters from Egyptian consuls telling of revolts in Phoenicia.
"The ships of Beyruth and Sidon have been captured," Tyre is besieged, and the
consul Abdi-Mclek writes, saying that the water and wood supplies are cut off, and there
is no food ; and at last he writes in anger, saying that he has withdrawn, and Tyre
is in the hands of the foe. Another scries of letters from Jerusalem tell the same story ;
Egypt was losing her hold on Phoenicia and Palestine, the Canaanites and Hittites
were increasing in power, and events were shaping themselves for the gradual con-
federation of those tribes, which, a century and a half afterwards, formed the foes
of conquering" Israel.1

So far only the literature and records of ancient Egypt have been described, — books
in the legitimate sense of the word ; but there are other books in this land of riddles
and surprises, where every tomb and temple is covered from floor to roof with countless
hieroglyphics and innumerable figures, which, pressing on one another, as it were, in
unceasing procession, leave not a foot of pillar or wall or roof undecked.*- On the
broad pillared facades, on lofty gateways— solitary pylon— on the walls and ceilings of
subterranean passages, narrow, dark, secret, in the majestic halls of temples, and on the
interiors of rock-hewn tombs, are the same profusion of portraits of gods and kings and
symbols of fruit, flowers, and strange animals, pictures and hieroglyphics, fitting
background for the priestly processions and the performance of mystic rites.

In these decorations are found a happy union of text, painting, and sculpture, now
almost unknown, implying the highest state of art, and presenting a picture of the
past most complete in character ; a pictorial and written record at once harmonious and
perfect.

1 See Drs. Bezold and Budge, "Translations of Inscriptions published by the Trustees of the
British Museum." - S. J. Weyman, " Egyptian Sketches."

CHAPTER IV.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

I.

HERE is a peculiar purity of conception and delicacy of taste
pervading Greek art and literature ; to the Greek mind these
were essential. Orderly and systematic training, added to natural
instinct, produced in Grecian art and literature that quality of fitness
and elegance which commands admiration. The Greeks, indeed,
derived their knowledge of the arts and sciences from other and older
nations, but they moulded the derived knowledge afresh, making it
pre-eminently their own. Among the Asiatic tribes, from whom the nations of Europe
descended, there appears to have been a thirst for knowledge, and a poetic instinct,
which uniting gave birth to literature. The very want of knowledge among these early
pastoral people, and the consequent exercise of the imagination in that first condition of
human culture, wherein all outward things were believed to be animate, when the forest
trees, the crystal waters of the brooks, and the shining host of heaven were endowed with
souls, when men were held to be heroes and the sons of gods, have left survivals in the
beautiful myths and legends of the ancient world, in the Vedas and Homeric hymns.

Then the visible forms of nature were worshipped. The sun became a god, who
drove his fiery chariot through the heavens ; the dawn a fair goddess, who laid a rosy
finger on the gloom ; the spring became the beautiful youth, Linus by name, sprung
from the gods, who grew up among the sheepfolds till Sirius, the fierce dog-star, tore him
in pieces. In brief,

" The lively Grecian, in a land of hills,
Rivers, and fertile plains, and sounding shores,
Under a cope of variegated sky,
Could find commodious place for every god,
Promptly received, as prodigally brought,
From the surrounding countries, at the choice
Of all adventurers."1

Wordsworth, "The Excursion," Book TV.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 27

Chiefly connected with religious ideas, the Grecian myths embodied the awe and
wonder of simple minds at natural phenomena. Among the Romans, on the other hand,
the tendency was rather in the direction of history than of religion. The Latin authors
adopted the Greek myths, but they invented a fine series of heroic and historic legends
for themselves,1 and stamped them with the imprint of their own national character.

It was not in a day that the myths took form and grew, but in the course of many
years. Oral tradition "at first played an important part among the Greeks. Gradually,
however, it gave place to hymns and epic poetry, which after a time were committed
to writing and became their first books. But the Greeks certainly used the letters
of the Cadmasan alphabet some five or six centuries before Homer's time (that
is, supposing Homer's date to be about 850 B.C.) ; letters were known to and used
by the Greeks fourteen or fifteen centuries before the Christian era. Yet there is no
evidence that the Iliad was committed to writing earlier than some four centuries
after the poet's death.

Epic, poetry for a long time supplied the place afterwards held by prose
literature. The legends of the heroic past could with ease be told in elegiac or
iambic verse, responding to all the needs of expression felt by a cultivated and
thoughtful people. And Greece, consisting of a number of small states, each busied with
its own affairs and traditions, could not at first command a national record written in
prose.2 Then, too, poetry could be remembered easily and need not be written, its beauty
of form commending itself to the Greek mind more than unrhythmical prose ; but when
speculation and philosophy began to claim attention, then came the necessity for a new
style suitable for the new form of expression, and Ionia gave birth to literary prose just
as she had before been the parent of artistic poetry. " Prose," says Mahaffy, " is impos-
sible without writing — nay, even without the well-established habit of fluent and sustained
writing ; " 3 and we may add, where there is no prose writing, there are few books. But
whence did the Greeks derive their knowledge of letters ? From the Phoenicians/ it
would seem.

Egyptian conquest in the seventeenth century B.C. brought the nations of Western
Asia under the rule of the Pharaohs. The adventures of Tothmes III., who overran
Palestine with his armies two hundred years before Moses led the tribes of Israel to the
Promised Land, were, like Caesar's, recorded in a diary by the conqueror himself. This
diary and the tablets of Tel-el-Amarna (see p. 24) furnish evidence of the widespread
influence of the Phoenicians upon the nations surrounding them. Long before the time
of Saul, King of Israel (B.C. 1000), Phoenician merchants of Sidon traded with Greece.
The art of writing was known in Western Asia and in Egypt at a period of great anti-
quity, and it is unlikely that a quick-witted people, such as the Greeks, would be long in
learning this knowledge from their neighbours. The Greeks, in fact, got their alphabet
from their neighbours, and first called their letters the Phoenician signs , indeed,
they could write before the forms of the language were fixed as we find them in the

1 H. D. Liddell, "A History of Rome," p. 60. - R. C. Jebb, " Greek Literature," pp. 101, 102.
3 J. P. Mahaffy, " History of Greek Classical Literature," ii. ^j.

28 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

oldest literature. They adopted Semitic symbols to their Aryan dialect ; and about the
ninth century B.C. some Eubcean colonists carried the Greek alphabet into Italy, where it
again took root and became the alphabet of the Roman Empire, and later of Latin
Christendom.

Recent excavations have brought to light archaic inscriptions of great antiquity.1
The earliest inscription of determinable date, that of the Greek mercenaries on the
leg of a colossal figure at Abu-Simbel, is by no means written in the most primitive
form of the Greek alphabet. The sepulchral inscriptions found at Melos, though per-
haps not much older in date, are more archaic Jin character. These and other inscriptions
show that the Greeks had adopted the Phoenician alphabe^and modified it to suit the
different character of their language certainly before B.C. 700, and perhaps considerably
earlier. One of the earliest extant examples of Greek writing on a papyrus is now at
Vienna ; it is a prayer, and probably dates from B.C. 280. The recent discoveries at
Olympia have fully established the antiquity of Greek writing.

Literature is the child of leisure ; some nations, like the Oscans and Etruscans,
never had the chance, apparently, to cultivate the literary faculty, and did not emerge
from the inscription, or earliest, stage of written record. But, although the rise of prose
literature among the Greeks was delayed by the exuberance of poetry, the true liberality
and nobleness of conception of their great prose writings are in a great measure the
fruits of the long sovereignty which poetry exercised over the race, holding them in
subjection until they gained enough power to become the masters of perfect prose.

From the days when classic_ learning began to revive to our own time scholars have
never ceased to hope for the discovery of lost books of Greek history and philosophy.
At one time the buried cities of Italy were eagerly searched for precious manuscripts, at
another the monasteries of the Levant were diligently explored, all with indifferent results ;
but at last the sands of Egypt have yielded to the explorer's spade, and are furnishing
bibliophiles with an apparently inexhaustible supply of ancient writings. The majority
of these manuscripts are of slight interest to the world at large, being principally
collections of magical formulae, monetary accounts, leases, wills, and other private docu-
ments ; but here and there works of classical literature have been recovered, though
always in a more or less fragmentary state.2 Fragments of Homer, Thucydides, Plato,
Euripides, Isocrates, Demosthenes, and of other classical authors have been discovered.
One or two works hitherto completely lost have been found, and these are the greatest
treasures of papyrus literature. They include a mutilated fragment of Alcman and an
oration of Hyperides, now at Paris ; other orations of Hyperides at the British Museum,
several of the lost poems of the iambographer Herodas, and the oldest Greek manuscripts
yet found, the fragments of Plato and Euripides, discovered by Mr. Flinders Petrie, and
pronounced by Professors Sayce and Mahaffy to be as old as the third century B.C.3

1 R. C. Jebb, "Greek Literature."

2 F. G. Kenyon, "The Athenian Constitution of Aristotle," 1891.

3 See the Professors' letters in the Academy of October nth, and Athenccum of October 25th and
December 6th, 1890.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 29

These include a part of the lost " Antiope" of Euripides. But perhaps the most valuable
and interesting of all the recently discovered manuscripts is the fragment of Aristotle's
"Constitution of Athens," formerly known to scholars only by short quotations, and
certainly lost for more than twelve, perhaps for eighteen, centuries. Some of the
recovered rolls were written by professional scribes, who wrote beautifully, and
ornamented the manuscripts so that they might be pleasing to the eye as well as
profitable to the mind ; others were carelessly written on coarse paper, and, since even
this was valuable, sometimes on the back of another writing. For, it should be
remembered, the paper had a right (recto) and a wrong (verso) side, and for an
important writing only one side was used. The text of the famous Aristotle is
written in thirty-seven columns, on four separate-rolls of rather coarse papyrus, the
cross fibres of which are distinctly visible. The rolls measure respectively 7 feet
2h inches, 5 feet 5 J inches, 3 feet, and 3 feet (the last roll is in fragments). The
height of the paper is about 1 1 inches, except in the case of the last roll, where
it measures about 10 inches. The joinings of the pages are distinctly visible, and the
paper is of a dull brown colour. The manuscript is written in four hands: (1) a small
semi-cursive, employing a large number of contractions ; (2) uncials of fair size, plain
but not ornamental, and employing no contractions ; (3) a straggling and often ill-
formed semi-cursive hand of larger size than the first ; (4) a semi-cursive hand similar
to the first.

This manuscript is a palin'ipsest. The Aristotle is written on the verso, and the
accounts of a farm-bailiff on an Egyptian estate on the recto. The accounts are dated
the tenth and eleventh years of the Emperor Vespasian (78, 79 A.D.). From this, and
from what is known of the palaeography of the first century A.D., the date of the
Aristotle is fixed at the end of the first or the beginning of the second century of our
era.1 But although this manuscript is in Greek, it is not of Grecian, but probably of
Egyptian origin.

Somewhat earlier in point of date is a document, at the British Museum, relating to
the services of the temple of Serapis, at Memphis, in Egypt. It is written in cursive
uncial letters, and is assigned to the year 162 B.C. From this manuscript maybe learned
something of the duties and the importance of the office held by the royal scribe Ani,
whose funeral papyrus is described on page 22. The fragments of Homer are the
most numerous of any old Greek manuscripts ; but they are always of the Iliad, never
of the Odyssey. Some fragments in our own National Collection are as old as the
first century B.C.

It may, perhaps, seem strange that beyond a few fragments of Epicurean
philosophy, no important Greek works have been found among

"The wreck of Herculanean lore."

But as yet the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum have not been thoroughly explored,

1 Mr. E. Scott, " Facsimile of the Papyrus Manuscript,'' No. exxxi., British Museum, 2nd edition,
1891.

30 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

and many of the rolls there are too badly burned to be read. Besides, Pompeii and
Herculaneum being provincial cities, any great collections of books would scarcely have
been made there. The private libraries appear to have been small (see p. 41).

Although but few genuine ancient Greek manuscripts have been handed down to our
days, we know from several sources that priests and poets were the first to make much
use of the art of writing. The great temple at Delphi, on Mount Parnassus, was one of
the places where writing was earliest practised and records kept. In the centre of the
temple an intoxicating vapour arose from a small hole in the floor ; over this stood a
tripod, on which the priestess of Apollo took her seat whenever the oracle was to be
consulted. The mysterious words uttered by the priestess, being believed to be the
revelations of the god, were carefully written down by attendants, whose duty it was to
turn the oracles into hexameter verse, and communicate them to the person who had
come to receive them.

Limited as is our knowledge of early Greek and Roman manuscripts, little more is
certainly known about the book trade both at Athens and Rome. At Athens at the
time of the Peloponnesian war, B.C. 431, and probably long before that event, there
were book shops in the market-place in the quarter called the " book-mart." There was
an export trade in books ; Greek manuscripts being sent to Egypt, to the Black Sea, and
to Italy.1 Xenophon relates that the Greeks who accompanied him on an expedition
against the Thracians found at Salmydessus, on the western shore of the Black Sea, a
place where many ships were grounded and driven on the sands, couches, boxes, written
books, and many other things, such as seamen carry in their wooden store-chests.2 There
is nothing surprising in the fact that books should have been transported to the Greek
colonies, when so many books were written and read in Greece. This statement is
supported by similar passages in other authors.3 In the time of Eupolis (B.C. 446 — 411)
there was a book-market (rd /3t/3\/a) 4 in Athens ; and Aristophanes (B.C. 444) implies
that books were easily to be procured in his time.5 It is well known that amateurs
and collectors of books might be found among the Athenians in the time of Socrates
(B.C. 469). Xenophon relates that a rich youth Euthydemus, surnamed the Handsome,
had collected many writings of the most celebrated poets and sophists, and imagined
that by that means he was outstripping his contemporaries in accomplishments.
Socrates hearing this came to the youth, as he sat in a bridle-maker's shop near the
market-place, and by a skilful fencing in dialectics proved to him that, his great library
notwithstanding, he knew little. Like another rich young man, Euthydemus went
away exceeding sorrowful ; for though he possessed all the books of Homer he could
not distinguish justice from injustice or right from wrong.0

It canrtpt be too well remembered that these old Greek books were papyrus rolls,

1 J. P. Mahaffy, "History of Greek Classical Literature."

2 Xenophon, "Anabasis," Book VII., 5, 14.

3 See Hutchinson (Theopompus, fragment of, preserved by Longinus, sect. 43).
' Poll., ix. 47.

■'Aristophanes, "Ran.," 1109.

0 Xenophon, "Memorabilia," Book IV., chap. ii.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AXD ROMANS. 31

resembling the Egyptian manuscripts, and utterly unlike the books now in use. Then
books were prepared and copied by slaves, whose labour cost little. On this account
books both at Athens and at Rome were tolerably cheap. We do not hear of any
authors making a livelihood by their work, except poets, who were largely paid
for vocal poems by both states and kings, and whose dramatic works were a source of
profit as well as honour.1 As to the price of books in classic times we have no very
clear information. We hear, indeed, of Anaxagoras' treatise being sold for 1 drachma
(Sd. or gd.) when very dear. At one time a book of Martial's " Epigrams " could
be sold at Rome for 2s., leaving very little royalty for the author. But from some
special circumstance books might at times command a high price. Gellius speaks
of Virgil's 2nd .Eneid being bought for viginti aurci, nearly ^Ti8 of our money ;- but
then the copy was an antiquarian curiosity, being reputed to be in Virgil's autograph.
Gellius has preserved a tradition that Aristotle gave 3 talents (about £730) for an
autograph manuscript of Spensippus, and Plato nearly 2 talents for three books of
Philolaus.3 Such instances merely show that price was regulated by fashion and
rarity, and by no means prove that ordinary books were dear. In Rome, at any
rate, books were cheap enough ; Statius speaks of a book (possibly his own), in a
neat purple cover, costing about $dr -The first book of Martial (A.D. 43 — 104) in
the shop of Atrectus cost 5 denarii (about 3^. iW.) ; but that was dear, for the
bookseller Tryphon could sell the same book at a profit for 4 sesterces (about J^d.) ; 5
but if that were too much, it might be had in a cheaper form for 2 sesterces (about
3id.).6 Possibly there may be some poetic licence in this statement ; but F. A. Paley
and W. H. Stone adduce this passage, in their edition of Martial, as proof that the cost
of manuscript books at Rome, in the first century of the Christian era, was less than
that of printed books now. In a room full of slaves, writing rapidly to the dictation
of one person, copies would be multiplied very cheaply.7 So far as regards rapidity
of production, the Romans could compete with the steam-driven printing press of the
nineteenth century- ; Martial tells us it would require but one hour to copy out the whole
of the second book of his Epigrams : " Hczc una peragit librarius Jwra"

Manuscripts were often illuminated, embellished, and bound as well as written
by slaves. The earliest Greek manuscripts now extant, most of which were found
in Egypt, are none of them illuminated with miniatures.5 At Milan there is a fragment
of an illuminated Iliad of the fourth century. This manuscript, with many others, was
in a vessel captured by the Turks. They eagerly broke open the caskets in which the
treasures were packed. " Moidores perhaps, guineas we hope, manuscripts by jingo ! "
the sanguine but disappointed Islamites are fabled to have exclaimed ; and they threw
the manuscripts overboard. This fragment of the Iliad survived, and the style of the

1 J. P. Mahafiy, " History' of Greek Classical Literature." i Silv., iv. 9, 9.

- Gellius, ii. 3. ; Martial, i. 117.

3 Ibid., ii. 17. s Ibid., xiii. 3.

' Paley and Stone, Martial, note to Epigram (692), xiii. 3.

8 Professor Middleton, " Illuminated Manuscripts in Classical and Mediaeval Times," 1892.

32 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

miniatures proves that they themselves were survivals.1 But few comparisons prove
more clearly the astonishing superiority of Greek genius than that of the Egyptian
" Book of the Dead," with the beautiful and mystic Orphic hexameters, engraved on
a plate of gold, which tell the Greek soul how to bear himself in the undiscovered
world.2

If the Greeks were not directly indebted to the Egyptians for the style of writing
and illuminating books, they at least owe them a debt for bindings. There was a style
of forming and embellishing a roll, known as Egyptian binding ; and the very name
of a book, ySt'/SXo? {biblos), was derived from the Egyptian name, not of the papyrus
plant, which was called Trairvpos (Latin papyros), but .of the rind or true material of
paper.3 But bookbinding, in the sense in which we understand the term now, was not
known to the ancient Greeks. It is said that the Athenians erected a statue to the
memory of Phillatius, the discoverer of a kind of paste for making the pages or sheets of
papyrus adhere together.4

IT.

The Romans derived their knowledge of books and literature in a great measure
though not entirely, from the Greeks, to whom nearly all Western literature may be traced.
In some cases the influence of Rome on modern literature has been more direct than
that of Greece ; but if followed far enough, any broad stream of it will carry us back to
a Greek source.5 Greeks and Italians both owed a great deal of their culture to their
custom of forming civic communities, a condition of life favourable to the growth of
literature. After the first Punic war the language of Rome was reformed entirely, the old
heterogeneous compound tongue being modified by Hellenic influences, which continued
after the conquest of Lower Italy and Sicily was complete. The old Greek colonies,
too, greatly influenced both art and letters at Rome, and in consequence the outward and
visible form of literature, that is to say, books, the multiplication of which did not begin
in Italy till after the State became settled.

The old story of the Sibylline Books bought by King Tarquinius Superbus about
five hundred and thirty years before the Christian era proves that books were known
to • the Romans at that early date. The king twice refused to purchase the venerable
tomes from the old woman who offered them to him, but afterwards provided a stone
chest and two keepers to take charge of three not very large volumes of magical
formula?.

The etymology of the Latin word for a book, liber, and its equivalent in many
languages, indicates that books were anciently made of vegetable substances. The
Egyptian and Greek terms were derived from the name of the papyrus plant. The
Latin liber, in its primary significance, means the inner bark of a tree, " rind " or " bast " ;
codex, the trunk of a tree; folium, a leaf; and tabula, a board. Thus we learn that

1 The same may be said of the Vatican fourth-century Virgil.

3 Daily News, May 1892. i " Nouveau Tracte de Diplom," torn, iii., p. 60.

3 Theophrastus. 6 R. C. Jebb, "Greek Literature," p. 6.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 33

writing was sometimes inscribed on the inner bark, on leaves, and sometimes on boards
cut off the main body of the tree. The English word BOOK is derived from the Anglo-
Saxon boc, the meaning of which is a writing, a charter, and a book. It is related to the
Gothic boka, a. feminine noun, the neuter form of which is bok, and the meaning, a letter
of the alphabet, and in the plural, a written document, a book. There is probably a
connection between the words book and bece, the latter being the ancient name of the
beech tree, but the derivation is uncertain. The word book, or boc, was introduced into
this country in Anglo-Saxon times by the ecclesiastics, who applied it to the written
charters, also introduced by them ; these afforded a more permanent and satisfactory
evidence of a grant or conveyance of land than the symbolical or actual delivery of
possession before witnesses, which was the method of transfer previously in vogue.1
Shakespeare uses the word in this significance : —

"By that time will our book, I think, be drawn."-'
Beaumont and Fletcher also use it in the same way : —

" Come, let's seal the book first,
For my daughter's jointure."3

And the meaning is clearly shown in the legal term boc-land, or book-land, property held
under the express terms of a written instrument ; 4 and in boc-hord, a place where charters,
evidences, or other written records are kept. The earliest Saxon charters extant are
written on parchment ; but it by no means follows that our ancestors, in common with
the predecessors of the Romans, did not use a vegetable substance for their writings. It
is known that the leaves of the palm tree,5 and the finest and thinnest part of the bark
of such trees as the tilia, the philyra, a species of linden, the lime, the ash, the maple,
and the elm, were used as writing material in very ancient times,6 just as the American
Indians use similar substances at the present day. This custom existed in the time of
Ulpian, who mentions it ; and in Oriental countries the palm leaf is still used in the
manufacture of books. In England, at the British Museum, the Bodleian, and other
great libraries, many beautiful palm-leaf manuscripts are preserved. In Ceylon the
leaves of the " talipot," and in other parts of India the leaves of the " ampana," were
extensively used for writing upon.7

It is now time to endeavour to explain the meaning of some of the most important
Latin words relating to books.

(1) LlBER. — The general term for a Roman book, or manuscript roll. The true liber
or bast is thought to have been used in prehistoric times for writing upon ; but this word
has nothing to do with the material of which paper was made, i.e., cliarta (%«/0T???), the leaf
or stem of the papyrus plant ; nor has the substantive philyra (cpiXvpa), the inner bark of
the lime tree, which Pliny seems to apply wrongly in describing the manufacture of paper.8

1 Century Dictionary, 1892, sub Book. ' F. Pollock, " Land Laws."

2 1 Henry IV., iii. 1. 5 Pliny, I. xiii. io, § 69.

3 Elder Brother, iii. 3. 6 Astle's " Writing," p. 201.
7 Home's " Bibliography," vol. i., p. 42.

6 See Smith's " Dictionary of Antiquities," sub Liber,

3

34

BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

(2) VOLUMEN. — Literally anything that is rolled, a noun derived from volvo, I roll :
hence, a written roll. This term, like liber, was in common use. Only one book was
included in a volume, so that a work generally consisted of as many volumes as books.
They might measure, when extended, from a few inches to i£ yards wide, and from
a few feet to 50 yards long.1 In Greece and Italy they were written on separate
pages, and fastened parallel to each other, so that the reader perused one page, then
rolled it up at one end, unrolled the next page, and so on to the end, as is seen in the
accompanying engraving from a painting found at Pompeii.

The writing was arranged in columns, so that the lines were parallel to the top and
bottom of the roll ; each page contained one column. Down to the time of Csesar, how-
ever, it was the custom to write official documents the reverse way {transversa chartd),
that is, across the whole breadth of the roll, so that the lines of the writing were at right
angles with the sides of the roll.2 The length of the rolls varied. The Scholists 3 speak
of Thucydides and Homer being written each in one long roll. The roll of Thucydides

is estimated at the incredible length of three hundred and
seventy-eight pages, or nearly 100 yards. A roll 120
yards long is said to have been in existence at Constan-
tinople. These are abnormal instances ; the ordinary
rolls rarely exceeded a hundred pages, and were usually
much smaller.4 In contrast to the huge roll of Homer,
there is extant a papyrus roll of the twenty-fourth book
of the Iliad, found at Elephantina, so that the complete
Iliad would have been in twenty- four volumes. The
rolls comprising one work might be tied together in a
bundle, which was then called fasces, or in Greek Biafir)
(desme), and the bundles placed in a case, or capsa.

(3) Libri Lintel— It is related that, among other
materials used for writing upon, linen and cotton cloths were much esteemed ; and in
some countries the skins, intestines, and even the shoulder-blades of various animals
were pressed into the service of the scribes, as well as the skins of fishes and the
intestines of serpents. To some of these it will be necessary to refer again.

Linen for writing upon was in use among the Romans in very early times. Libri
lintei are mentioned by Livy not as existing in his own time, but as mentioned by
Licinius Macer, who states that linen books were kept in the temple of Juno Moneta.5
They were not books in a restricted sense, but simply " very ancient annals and books
of magistrates," and were written certainly as early as 440 B.C. Livy also speaks of
a Samnite ritual-book as " liber vetus linteus," an ancient linen book.6

(4) CODEX. — This word originally signified the trunk or stem of a tree. Hence
anything made of wood, and at length a book, i.e., wooden tablets wax-lined and bound

{Fr,

ANCIENT ROMAN READING.

m a painting found at Pompe

1 Fabricius' " Biblical Antiq.," chap, xix., p. 607.

2 Suetonius, "Jul.," 56.

3 Quoted by Birt, p. 444.

4 Smith's " Diet, of Antiq.," sub Liber.

5 Livy, iv. 7, 13, 20, 23.

6 Ibid., x. 38.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 35

together in a primitive and simple manner. When at a later age parchment and
other materials were substituted for wood and put together in book shape, the
name codex was often used as synonymous with liber. It was the name more par-
ticularly given to account-books. In the time of Cicero it was also applied to a tablet
on which a bill was written, and in still later times to any collection of laws or constitu-
tions of the emperors.1 For literary compositions the term codex was used by Christian
writers, beginning with the codices of the sacred writings. The term was occasionally
used by other writers at the end of the third century, but did not become popular till
the fifth century. Now the meaning is still further restricted to a manuscript book.

(5) LlBELLUS, the diminutive form of liber, is a word frequently found in writings of
the classic age, and used generally to designate a book consisting of a few leaves of parch-
ment or paper, written and bound together in pages as our books.2 Paintings have been
found at Pompeii representing books of this kind, resembling a modern thin folio volume.

Among the Romans parchment (inembrand) was extensively used ; animals' skin
prepared for writing upon must have been in use among pastoral people in very early
times, but the purposes of membrana and cliarta (paper) were distinct until late in the
empire. The material called VELLUM is a species of parchment finer in grain, whiter
and smoother than ordinary parchment ; as the name implies, it is prepared from calf-
skin. Among the early nations of Asia, and as is well known among the Persians and
Jews, parchment was extensively used. Doubtless, a few gathered sheets of folded
parchment were in very early times applied to various literary purposes ; but the roll seems
to have been the most general form for important books, even among the Jews. Of the
great and early skill in making these rolls an instance is found in Josephus, who refers
to a copy of the law sent to Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 285 — 247). This passage is so
pertinent to our subject that it seems best to give it at length. Ptolemy, King of Egypt,
set free a hundred and twenty thousand slaves who were Jewish captives. The occasion
was this : — Demetrius Phalerius, library-keeper to the king, was endeavouring, if it
were possible, to gather together all the books that were in the habitable earth, and
buying whatsoever was anywhere valuable or agreeable to the king's inclination (who
was very earnestly set upon collecting of books). And when once Ptolemy asked him
how many ten thousands of books he had collected, he replied that he had already
about twenty times ten thousand, but that in a little time he should have fifty times
ten thousand. But, he said, he had been informed that there were many books of
laws among the Jews of surpassing excellence and worthy of the king's library, but
the books, being written in characters and in a dialect of their own, would cause no small
pains in getting them translated into Greek. So the king wrote to the Jewish high-
priest to send him the books. Now there was one Aristeus, who was among the king's
most intimate friends, a man who sought to do good to the Jewish captives. He
persuaded the king to liberate the slaves before sending to Jerusalem for the coveted

1 See Smith's " Dictionary of Antiquities," sub Codex.

3 See Suetonius, "Jul.," 56; Cicero, "Or.," 1, 21; Horace, "Sat," 1, 10, 92; A. Rich., "Dic-
tionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," edition 1884.

36 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

books of the law. And this was done accordingly. Then an epistle was sent, with
presents of gold, silver, and jewels, to Eleazar, the high-priest at Jerusalem, asking that
the sacred books might be lent to the king, and that there might be sent with them six
of the elders out of every tribe, such as were most skilful in the laws. To this request
the high-priest returned a grateful answer, saying he had chosen the six elders out of
every tribe, and sent them to the king, and with them the law. Now when the seventy-
(two) elders came to Alexandria to King Ptolemy, he received them honourably, and
questioned them concerning the books, and the laws which were written in letters of
gold. And when the old men had taken off the covers wherein the rolls were wrapped,
they showed him the membranes. So the king stood admiring the thinness of those
membranes, and the exactness of the junctures, which could not be perceived (so exactly
were they connected one with another) ; and this he did for a considerable time. The
old men were afterwards conducted to an island, where in seventy-two days the law
was transcribed and translated, and then read over in the presence of all the Jews,
who approved of the thing that was done. So the old men departed to their own
country with many presents from the king, and honoured both by the Egyptians and
their own countrymen.1

Such is the legend of the making of the Septuagint, or Greek Version of the
Jewish Scriptures, — a legend often regarded as mythical, but which the writer is credulous
enough to accept as proof that parchment was used for the most sacred of all books long
before Eumenes II., King of Pergamus (B.C. 197 — 159), is supposed to have invented it.

The story of the invention of parchment by Eumenes is repeated, with slight
alterations, by various authors beginning with Varro ;2 Jerome relates the same tale of \,
Attalus. But there is no doubt that parchment was used as a writing material many
centuries before the time of Attalus or Eumenes. The true account seems to be that a
great improvement in the preparation of skins was made at Pergamus somewhere about
the year 180 B.C.3 From the name of this city, it is said, the word parcJiment (charta
Pergamend) is derived. The improvement seems to have consisted in preparing both
sides of the skin for writing instead of one side only. Eumenes, we are told, was a
lover of books, and aspired to form a library which should rival that of the Pharaohs
at Alexandria. This made the ruler of Egypt jealous, and, to prevent the manufacture of
books in other countries than his own, he prohibited the exportation of papyrus. Eumenes,
being a man of stubborn disposition, refused to allow this to prevent him carrying out
his scheme, and accordingly he caused parchment to be more carefully prepared. In
course of time this substance became an article of commerce, and was exported to Rome.

Parchment was usually bound in the codex form, or book shape, and was used in
Rome for account-books, for wills, and for notes. It competed rather with wax tablets
than with paper. The membrana mentioned in Horace 4 was used for the rough copy

1 Josephus, "Antiquities of the Jews," Book XII., chap, ii., Ed. Whiston, 1847.

2 Ap. Plin., xiii., § 70. Vossius, Bayle, Chalmers, etc.

3 Smith's "Dictionary of Antiquities."

4 Horace, "Sat.," ii. 3, 2; and "A. P.," 389.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 37

of poems to be altered and published later, and the same purpose was served by the
parchment in a diptych stained yellow referred to by Juvenal.1 Till long after the
Augustine age charta (paper) was used for literary publications generally.

Papyrus paper, it has been stated, was the material of which books were chiefly
made in ancient Rome ; and if we may judge from the prices obtained for them, it was
a fairly cheap commodity notwithstanding the tax upon it. This tax, Cassiodorus says,
was removed by Theodoric (475 — 526 A.D.), because it was considered an impediment
to learning.2 Pliny records that paper was manufactured from papyrus at Rome, as
well as at Alexandria and elsewhere.3 There were nine sorts or qualities of paper, the
best being called hieratica, because upon it the sacred writings were inscribed by the
Egyptian priests. By the Romans it was called royal (regia), and afterwards Augusta,
out of compliment to the emperor. It was 13 digits, about 9 or 10 inches, broad, and
was prepared for writing on one side only ; it was thin and semi-transparent. In the
reign of Claudius this was improved upon by a paper called Claudia, which was a foot
broad, thicker than the best paper of an earlier date, and prepared for writing on both
sides. The commoner kinds of paper, when used for accounts or literary purposes, were
sometimes used over again for schoolboy's exercises or rough notes. Sometimes the
verso of the paper was used for these purposes, as in the case of the famous manuscript
of the Athenian constitution ; at other times the original writing was sponged out, as in
a parchment palimpsest, and the recto of the paper used over again.

Having described the various materials of which the Romans formed their rolls,
and briefly referred to the names given by them to the ordinary kinds of books,
we will now turn to the rolls themselves, and learn something about the manner in
which they were made and ornamented, or, as we should now express it, bound.

Latin authors, the poets especially, entered into the minutiae of the art of making,
adorning, and covering books. Without doubt the Romans were indebted to the
Greeks for much of their knowledge of these matters, but the disciples appear to
have outrun their masters in this respect if in no other. The Romans had their
librarii, librarioli, bibliopegi, and bibliopola ; answering to our printer, engraver, binder,
and bookseller. The librarii multiplied books by transcribing manuscripts ; the librarioli
illustrated them by ornamenting the title-pages, margins, and terminations ; the
bibliopegi employed their skill on the embellishment of the exterior of the manuscripts ;
the bibliopola were engaged in the disposal of the books when finished.

Of the duties of the scribes we need not inquire minutely ; but it should be stated
that some of the more skilful among them illuminated as well as wrote the manuscripts,
and when divisions of labour became general the art of illumination seems to have
formed a separate occupation. The chief colour of illuminated letters among the
Romans was bright red, and the small drawings of men and animals sometimes found
in manuscripts of the Roman period are red. Thus it is that the words miniature and
vermilion are of the same root. Minium is perhaps of Spanish derivation, meaning
native cinnabar, vermilion, or sulphuret of mercury. Pliny uses the word to express red
1 Juvenal, vii. 24. 2 Cassiodorus, Ep. xi. 38 3 Pliny, xiii., § 77

38 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

oxide of lead. It is only of late years that the word miniature has been used in the
restricted sense as applied to a small portrait.

We have seen that in the infancy of the art of bookbinding at Athens sheets
or pages were fastened or sewn together by strings. The damage caused by this
proceeding where the material was so frail as papyrus led to the invention of paste
or glue. If we may credit Olympiodorus, the inventor of this glue received from
his countrymen the honour of a statue. In all probability the Egyptians knew the
value of glue ages before the time of Phillatius ; but the point is immaterial. Of the
use of o-lue for this purpose among the Romans, Cicero, in a letter to his friend Atticus,
has left a proof,1 and Pliny confirms it. Pollux also, mentions writers and vendors
of books, and the glutination of them.2 Sometimes the pages of the rolls were written
first, and pasted together afterwards by slaves called glutinatores.

The first operation of the Greek and Roman bookbinder was to cut the margins
{frons) of the paper above and below perfectly even, and the sheets at the beginning
and end square. He then gave the edges and the exterior of the roll the most perfect

polish possible by means of pumice-stone,
with which substance the writers had pre-
viously smoothed the interior. Horace,
Pliny, Martial, Ovid, and Catullus all bear
testimony to this use of pumice, and to the
present day it is used by bookbinders in
some of their operations. The edges {frons)
at each end of the roll were coloured just
as the edges of modern books are coloured.

ROMAN MANUSCRIPTS. »

Ovid describes a roll with black edges.3 Then
an index {titulus) was affixed to the roll, sometimes at the end, sometimes in the middle
of the edge of the roll, as appears in the engraving of some rolls from Herculaneum.
The titulus answered to our title-page, lettering-piece, and contents table combined ;
for, besides the name of the work, the total number of pages, verses, or lines was
sometimes written upon it. Thus Josephus reckons sixty thousand lines at the end of
his twentieth book of " Antiquities," and Justinian gives to the " Digests " " centum
quinquaginta paene milia versum." The price of the book was sometimes fixed by this
index number, and like modern lettering-pieces, the title was generally coloured, often
of a red tinge by coccum or minium.

To the end of the roll a roller or rod of some light substance, such as wood, was
attached, but even tightly folded paper was sometimes used for this purpose. Around
this rod the manuscript was rolled. The ends of the rods were usually level with the
edges of the roll, and were painted. When the manuscript was rolled up the rod would
be in the centre : hence it is said to have been called umbilicus. It would have
been inconvenient for the rods to have projected beyond the edges of the paper when
the rolls were intended to be placed in a case or capsa. Most of the rolls yet found
1 Cicero, Book IV. 4. s Ibid.,' Book VII. 32. 3 Ovid, " Trist," i. 2, 8. .

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 39

are of this description ; but people who were very particular about the appearance of
their books lengthened the rollers and added to them ornamental bosses (bullce). These,
projecting beyond the roll like the budding horns of a heifer, received the name of
cornua (horns), and in time the two terms umbilicus and cornua became convertible,
especially when used figuratively to designate the end of a book.1

Presentation copies of books, or copies of special value and importance, may have
been much more elaborately "got up" than those intended for an ordinary library.
This statement is supported by many passages in classic writings.

It was, however, customary to provide covers of parchment for rolls. According to
Achilles Statius, covers were at first woven of the fibrous bark of some tree ; at a later
period they were of leather dyed purple, yellow, or scarlet, and in poetical language they
were frequently called purpurea toga? Martial says : —

" Sunt quoque mutatae ter quinque volumina formse,
Purpureo fulgens habitu, radiantibus uncis ; "3

and speaking of the book shop opposite Caesar's forum : " There you can buy a
Martial, polished with pumice-stone, and ornamented with purple, for 5 denarii."4
In another epigram he enters into the details of the binding of a book in his time
(A.D. 43 — 104) thus : —

" To whom, my little book, do you wish me to dedicate you ? Make haste to choose
a patron, lest, being hurried off into a murky kitchen, you cover white-bait before your
leaves are dry, or make a screw for incense, or for pungent pepper. Is it into
Faustinus' bosom that you flee? Then you have chosen wisely, and may now make
your, way perfumed with oil of cedar, and decorated with ornaments at both ends,
luxuriate in all the glory of painted bosses ; delicate purple may cover you, while your
title may blaze in scarlet. With him for patron, fear not even Probus."5

The epigram would seem to hint that, owing to the patronage of Faustinus,
Martial's book would command a good price and a quick sale. On this account it
might be issued in first-class style. The leaves perfumed with oil of cedar, at once as
an antiseptic against moths and to colour the paper, and decorated with a pair of gaily
painted bosses. The roll placed in a bright parchment case decked with a scarlet
lettering-piece gives a suggestion of splendour to the whole appearance. To this notice
of what Martial wished to be performed on his work may be added another proof of the
magnificence of some of the Roman books in the directions given by Ovid relative to
the omission of all ornament. The poet in exile sent his book to Rome, and directed
that it should be published in a simple manner, typical of grief and affliction, in a
garb suited to an exile : —

" Without me, little book, you must visit Rome, whither I, your master, cannot go.
Not that I envy your fortune. Speed on your way unadorned, as is becoming an exile's
work ; put on the fitting garb, unhappy one, of this season. Let not the hyacinth array

1 A. Rich., "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities," sub Umbilicus.
2 Martial, x. 93. 3 Ibid., xi. 1. 4 Ibid., i. 118. 5 Ibid., iii. 2

40 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

you in its purple tints ; bright colours are not suitable for mourning. Let not your title
be inscribed in red, nor your leaves be smeared with cedar oil, nor yet have snow-
white handles to your blackened pages. These are the ornaments of books more
fortunate than thou. Thee it behoves to keep my fate in mind. Let not the brittle
pumice polish the edges of your leaves. Thus you may appear fitly with rough,
dishevelled hair. And, lastly, be not ashamed of blots ; they who behold thee will know
that these were caused by my sad tears." 1

Horace 2 and Tibullus 3 confirm all that has been advanced above on the practice
of the art among the Romans, and many other passages in Martial might be quoted to
the same effect. Tibullus appears to refer to a cover coloured with yellow : —

" Lutea sed niveum involvat membrana libellum " 4
(" But a yellow cover may cover the snowy book ") ;

but it may be a question whether the colour of the parchment, of which the cover was
formed, and which assumes a yellow appearance from age, is not the right interpretation
of the passage.

To Catullus we are indebted for a minute and elaborate description of ancient
binding. In the dedication to Cornelius Nepos he writes : —

" With pumice dry, just polished fine,
To whom present this book of mine,
This little volume, smart and new." 5

And in another of his poems, in ridicule of a person named Suffenus, he gives us what
may be considered a complete description of the best binding in the time of Cicero : —

"AD VARRUM.
"Suffenus iste, Varre, quem probe nosti,

Homo est venustus, et dicax, et urbanus ;

Idemque longe plurimos facit versus.

Puto esse ego illi millia aut decern aut plura

Perscripta, nee sic, ut fit, in palimpsesto

Relata ; charts regise, novi libri,
■ Novi umbilici, lora rubra, membrana

Directa plumbo, et pumice omnia asquata." 6

which has been thus rendered : —

" Suffenus, that wretch, whom my Varus well knows,

So pretty, so prating, so over polite,
Has a genius for verse that incessantly flows,

Has a muse which ten thousand fine things can indite.
His paper is royal, not common, or bad ;

His wrappers, his bosses, are totally new;
His sheets smooth'd by pumice, are all ruled with lead,

And bound with a riband of rose-coloured hue."7

1 " Ovid de Tristibus," Eleg. ad Librum, i. ■' Catullus^ English Translation, 2 vols. 8vo.

3 Horace, Epistle xx. 1. 6 Ode xxii.

3 Tibullus, Book III., eleg. 1. 7 English Translation.

4 Ibid., iii. 1, 9.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

41

The reference to the covers and bosses being of a new character shows that the
custom was to introduce great variety in the style of ornament. The directa plumbo,
M. Peignot, in his " Essay on the Books of the Ancients," thinks refers to the parchment
of which the cover was composed, being cut with a square, from Catullus appearing to
direct attention to the exterior form and condition of the binding ; and further grounds
his opinion from the book or roll being described as written on chartce regies, and the
covers being of parchment (jnembrana), as above described. Palimpsesto, of course, refers
to the practice of erasing an old writing from the paper in order to write upon it again.

The lora rubra of Catullus were two strings of coloured riband or leather, attached
to the last sheet or cover of the volume, round which, when it was rolled up, they were
fastened so as to keep the whole tight and firm and prevent the lodgment of dust
and insects. But some scholars suppose that by lora ruba a parchment case is meant.1

On the outside of the cover the title of the work was generally inscribed.
Chrysostom, who flourished in the fourth century, and who, doubtless, founded his
argument on what he had frequently seen done at Constantinople, or by the
Eastern princes who had business to transact with the Greek emperors, very particularly
alludes to this custom. In his remarks on a disputed passage of the Bible, he observes
that it referred to the title written on the wrapper, which signified, " The Messiah
cometh." And Aquilla, who flour-
ished a hundred years earlier, gives
the same interpretation.3 This sug-
gests a more distinct idea of the
passage ; as when referred to the case
in which the roll was enclosed, the
impression becomes clear and ener-
getic, implying that the subject of the book is that "the Messiah cometh," which
title might with great propriety be written or embroidered on the wrapper or case in
which it was kept.3 The engraving gives the general appearance of a book when
completed in its roll form.

From the perishable nature of the materials of which rolls and their coverings
were composed, and the destruction of them frequent in times of war, it happens
that very few perfect specimens have been preserved to our days. The excavations
at Herculaneum, the discovery of the ruins of which took place in 17 13, have thrown some
further light upon the subject. Here, after a lapse of nearly twenty centuries, several
thousand papyri have been acquired. Thirty-nine years after the first discovery of the city,
in making an excavation in a garden at Resina, in the remains of a house supposed to have
belonged to L. Piso, a great number of papyrus rolls were found. They were ranged in
presses round the sides of a small room, in the centre of which was a sort of rectangular
bookcase ; many of the rolls were at first destroyed by the workmen, who, from the

1 G611. See Smith's " Dictionary of Antiquities."
s Calmet's Dictionary, vol. iii., p. 129, edition 1836.
3 Harmer's "Observations on Scripture," vol. iv., p. 10.

ANCIENT ROLL.

42 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

colour given by age, took them to be sticks of charcoal. When, however, it was
discovered that they were ancient manuscripts, the attention of the learned was directed
towards their preservation. Father Piaggi invented a machine for unrolling them ; but
many of them have been destroyed, — some crumbling into dust on the slightest touch.
George IV., then Prince of Wales, took much interest in the matter, and at his own
private cost employed several gentlemen in the task of unrolling and deciphering them.1
Among others Sir H. Davy visited the spot for the purpose of assisting, but from some
supposed impediments which obstructed his research, gave up the experiment, after a
little success had attended his endeavours. It is to the shape of these rolls, and the
coverings they may have had, we have to refer; in shape, the engraving on page 38 gives
a correct representation ; and of the state in which they were found, two letters received
in this country about the middle of the last century present a full account. One letter,
from Camillo Paderni, keeper of the museum at Portici, among other things, describes a
room the floor of which was formed of mosaic work. He says : " It appears to have been
a library, adorned with presses, inlaid with different sorts of wood, disposed in rows, at
the top of which were cornices." He was buried in that spot more than ten days ; he
took away three hundred and twenty-seven manuscripts, all in Greek characters ; there
was also a bundle, consisting of eighteen volumes, wrapped round with bai'k of a tree ;
they were Latin. The second, from another person, describes a chamber of a house in
Herculaneum, where was found a great number of rolls, about half a palm long, and
round ; they appeared like roots of wood, all black, and seeming to be only of one
piece ; one of them falling upon the ground, broke in the middle, and many letters were
observed, by which it was first known that the rolls were of papyrus. There were about
a hundred and fifty rolls in wooden cases, much burnt. This writer mentions the
unrolling of a tract on music, by Philodemus, which had about sixty columns, each
column having twenty lines, of the third of a palm long. He also says there were Latin
manuscripts, some of which were so voluminous that, unrolled, they would take up a
hundred palms.2 A long interval took place between the publication of this treatise
and any subsequent fragments.3

The Romans bestowed no less care and attention on the preservation of manuscripts
than they did on the preparation and production of them. Pliny says that the books of
Numa were preserved underground for five hundred and thirty-five years, from having
been rubbed with cedrium and enclosed in boxes formed of cedar.4 The testimony of
Ovid, Catullus, and others has been before adduced as to its application for this purpose.
Cedar oil gave the paper a yellow tinge.5

In addition to covering them, the Romans were accustomed to further protect
their rolls from injury by placing the most valuable in cases or chests of cedar wood,
with the titles or labels at top in the following manner.

This case was called by them scrinium (deriv., scribo, I write), and capsa, or

1 " Herculanensia," preface i. 3 Edinburgh Review, xlviii. 353, and Quarterly Review, v. 1.

2 Ibid., 192. ■' "Nat. Hist," xiii. 13.

5 Ovid, "Trist," iii. 1, 13 ; Martial, iii. 2; Horace, "A. P.," 331.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

capsula, and was generally of a circular form, from its readier adaptation to the shape
of the rolls. There is a statue of Sophocles, now in the Lateran Museum, Rome,
representing the poet standing beside a circular box containing rolls. The ancients,
in times of war, devastation, and rapacity, buried their writings in the earth, and this
may at first have given rise to the scrininm.
Whatever the scrinium may have been origi-
nally, it became afterwards a general sort
of bookcase. Catullus, in excuse to Manlius
for not sending him some verses, pleads
having only one box of his books with him.
This also proves that the Romans were in the
habit of taking a number of books with them
to whatever place business or pleasure might
lead, forming a sort of travelling library, as
one of these boxes would contain several
volumes. Some of the cases were highly
ornamented. One found at Herculaneum, but which crumbled to dust soon after its
discovery, bore busts of Demosthenes, Epicurus, Hermes, and Zeno.

ROMAN BOOK-EOX.

III.

While the roll was the form adopted for the more lengthy works by the Greeks and
Romans, they appear for a long period to have made use of table books, or pugillaria
(literally handbooks, so called on account of their small dimensions, which allowed of
their being held in the hand or fist), for the
purpose of taking notes, keeping accounts,
etc. These were tablets of ivory, wood, or
metal, thinly covered with wax, the writing
upon which, with a stylus or iron pen, could
be erased and written in again at pleasure.1
Pliny 2 states that the public acts among the
most remote nations were written in leaden
books. The existence of books formed of
this metal is further supported by the testi-
mony of Job,3 Suetonius, and Frontinus. The

eminent antiquary Montfaucon purchased a book at Rome in the year 1799, which he
describes as composed entirely of lead : " It is about 4 inches long by 3 wide. Not
only the pieces which form the cover, but also all the leaves, in number six, the stick
inserted into the rings, which hold the leaves together, the hinges and the nails, are
all of lead, without exception." 4 It contained Egyptian gnostic figures, and writing.

1 Note to Catullus, Ode xxxix. 2 " Nat. Hist.," xiii. 1.

3 Perhaps the passage in Job may refer to the practice of filling incised letter on stone with lead.

J Montfaucon, " Antiq. Expliq.," ii. 378.

ROMAN BOOKS AND WRITING MATERIAL.

44

BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

Montfaucon presented it to M. the Cardinal de Bouillon, but what has become of it
is unknown. These leaden plates were frequently so extremely thin that they might
easily be rolled up. An ancient author tells us that they were beaten with a
hammer until they were rendered very thin and pliable.1 Catullus2 adverts to
some wanton girl, who had jestingly stolen his pugillaria or poetical notes. A tablet
from Herculaneum is represented below.

The leaves, from two to six or eight in number,
were connected together at the back by rings ; in
the centre of each leaf was a slight projection or
button, to prevent the notes on the wax being
destroyed or defaced. According to the number of
leaves, they were called duplices, triplices, quintu-
ples, etc. A duplex tablet is here introduced ;
and from the same source we are enabled to present

ROMAN TABLET OF TWO LEAVES. .

one with three leaves. They were in use in the
time of Homer,3 and according to Pliny were introduced before the Trojan war.4

" The dreadful token of his dire intent,
He in the gilded tables wrote and sent."5

Martial G makes mention of tablets of parchment covered with wax. The earliest
extant example of a Roman tablet may now be seen at the museum at Naples ; upon
the wax is recorded a payment made to Umbricia Junuaria, dated A.D. 55. It was
found at Pompeii in 1875. Two specimens of ancient Roman tablets have been found

in the gold mines in Transylvania ; one of fir wood,
the other of beech, each consisting of three leaves.
They are about the size of a modern octavo book.
The outer parts exhibit a plain surface of wood, the
inner parts are covered with a layer of wax sur-
rounded by a raised margin of the wood ; the
edges of one side are pierced that they may be
fastened together by means of a thread or wire.
The wax is so thin that the stylus of the writer has cut through it into the wood below.
On both tablets the writing still remains, and on one the name of the consul is given
determining the date to be A.D. 169.7

The convenience of the square form in these tablets ultimately led to its adoption
for almost every description of writing. The honour of the introduction of binding,
composed of separate leaves, as now universally practised throughout Europe, has been
accorded to Eumenes, King of Pergamus, whom we have before referred to as the

1 " Herculanensia," 100. 4 " Herculanensia," 101.

2 Ode xxxix. 6 Homer's Iliad, vi. 168.

3 Homer's Iliad, Book VI. 6 Epistle xiv. 7.

7 See Massmann ; and Smith's "Dictionary of Antiquities," sub Tabulce; also W. Maskell,
" Ivories," p. 23.

ROMAN TABLET OF THREE LEAVES.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

45

inventor of parchment ; x but the flat form of book must have been used at a much
earlier date than his reign.

When books of folded form came into use the necessity of a cover would be even
more apparent than for the rolls, and hence gradually arose bookbinding in its present
shape. At first the leaves were simply tied together with riband, the riband forming
a hinge similar to the rings in the tablets before represented. The form and manner
will be understood from the engraving given below.

. The cover at first, no doubt, would be simply a leaf of parchment, or some other
skin. This would soon be found of itself insufficient, and probably suggest the use of
boards, which were very early adopted. Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, had in his
possession a large and very perfect manuscript on papyrus ; " a gnostic book, full of
their dreams," which had been dug up at Thebes, and which he believed was the only
perfect one then known. Speaking of it he says : " The boards or covers for binding
the leaves are of papyrus root, covered first with coarse pieces of the paper, and then
with leather, in the same manner as it would be done now. It is a book that we should
call a small folio; and I apprehend that the
shape of the book, where papyrus is employed,
was always of the same form with those of the
moderns." (In this latter remark Bruce is
decidedly wrong.) " The woody part of the
root of the papyrus served for boards or cover-
ings of the leaves. We know that this was
anciently one use of it, both from AIceus and
Anacreon. The -Ethiopians use wood for the outer covering of their books, and cover
this with leather." 2

Another traveller, Dr. Hogg, has added to our store of knowledge of the early form
of books in a description of two papyri found at Thebes. He relates that among the
various objects of antiquity which were purchased from the Arabs, were two papyri, the
one in Coptic, the other in Greek, both in the form of books. The Greek papyrus has
been discovered to contain a portion of the Psalms. The leaves, of about 10 inches
in length by 7 inches in width, are arranged, and have been sewn together like those of
an ordinary book, they are formed of strips of the papyrus plant, crossing each other
at right angles. The manuscripts were both discovered among the rubbish of an ancient
convent at Thebes, remarkable as still preserving among its treasures some fragments
of an inscription, purporting to be a pastoral letter from Athanasius, Patriarch of
Alexandria, who died A.D. 371.3 The portion of the Psalms is now in the British
Museum, and consists of about thirty leaves. The Coptic manuscript contains a hundred
and fifty pages, folded in the form now adopted by us, but has never been bound. It
was in the collection of J. Burton, Esq., when sold by Messrs. Sotheby & Son. Mr.
Thorpe, bookseller, of Piccadilly, was the purchaser, at the sum of ^84.

2 " Travels," vii. 8.

ROMAN TABLET WITH RIBAND FORMING

Vossius, Bayle, Montfaucon, etc.

3 " Visit to Alexandria,'

etc., u. 312.

46 BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

These and many subsequent discoveries prove a very early knowledge of and
considerable proficiency in the art of bookbinding as now practised. When once the
leaves were secured, the subsequent stages of covering and ornamenting would soon
follow. Bruce describes the book he had as being covered with leather ; and Suidas,
who lived in the tenth century, and who would reason from personal knowledge of
bindings of much earlier times, however erroneous his opinions on alchemy may have
been, confirms the use of leather for the purpose of binding by the ancients. In his
Lexicon he describes chemistry as the art of making gold, and states that the golden
fleece, in search of which Jason and the Argonauts went, was nothing else than a book
boicnd in sheep-skin, which taught the art of making gold.1

The materials used and style of decoration adopted by the ancients for the
embellishment of their rolls have been described. When the square form of book became
general it presented a more ample field for display than the roll had done, and all the
knowledge of book decoration previously acquired was brought into requisition and
considerably improved upon. In addition to the staining or colouring, it is but
reasonable to suppose various ornaments would soon be added by people to whom many
of the fine arts were so familiar. We have direct testimony of the adoption of impressed
gold ornaments, and the DIPTYCH, to which we shall now refer, proves that sculptured
figures and other carved embellishment were very extensively introduced.

To enter fully into a description of the nature, form, and circumstances connected
with the diptych cannot, from its great extent, here be effected. Gori has filled three
folio volumes on the subject, and to his learned work we must be content to refer the
curious in this matter. Further information may be found in M. J. Labarte's " Arts of
the Middle Ages," in Professor Westwood's " Fictile Ivories," and in W. Maskell's
" Handbook to Ivories." Diptychs have been classed under two heads, the consular and
ecclesiastic. The former will here engage our attention, reserving the latter to the
next chapter, as coming properly under the period devoted to the consideration of
the bindings more immediately connected with monastic and religious institutions.

It is known that, from about the year iooo B.C. down to the Christian era, there
was a constant succession of artists in ivory in the countries of Western Asia, Egypt,
Greece, and in Italy. Ivory tablets of great antiquity have been found among the ruins
of Nineveh. These ancient works of art are carved, gilt, and enamelled, showing that
they were by no means the first attempts at ornament of this description. The Roman
consular diptychs are important works of art ; the earliest yet found is said to be of
the middle of the third century, while the latest belongs to the middle of the sixth.
Diptychs of this kind were part of the presents sent by new consuls on their appointment
to office to eminent persons, to senators, to governors of provinces, and to friends. They
varied both in material and workmanship, according to the dignity of the person for
whom they were intended.2 Symmachus, who was consul in 391 A.D., states in one of
his letters 3 that he sent to eminent persons a diptych overlaid with gold, to other friends

1 Edi?iburgh Review, i. 256. 3 W. Maskell, " Ivories, Ancient and Mediaeval," p. 23.

3 Symmachus, " Letters," Book V.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 47

ivory and silver tablets. For people of lower rank doubtless the diptychs would be of
cheaper material, of bone or wood. When so many would be required by the consul of
the year it was impossible that all could be made by good artists, and probably one
or two of the best kind were roughly copied by common workmen. Rapidly as art
declined during the three centuries after the birth of Constantine, as shown especially
in these ivory carvings, there is, nevertheless, a certain lingering attachment to the
older traditions ; if the ornamental detail becomes over-abundant, the outline of the
design and the attitude of the figures retained somewhat of the dignity of the older
models. This is particularly noticeable in the Byzantine work.

The pugillaria being small, as before described, were used for private memoran-
dums ; whilst the diptych, of large dimensions (usually about 12 inches in length
by 5 or 6 inches in breadth) more especially appertained to the public acts of
the consuls, magistrates, and other functionaries. Hence they are called consular
diptyclis. Anything doubled, or doubly folded, is a diptych ; the word though of
Greek derivation, is chiefly applied to tablets used by the Romans for writing upon.
A diptych consisted of two leaves, joined together by a hinge of some kind ; the two
inner sides being covered with wax to receive the writing, while the outer sides were
either left plain or adorned with carvings and ornaments of various kinds. Diptychs
were of similar character but different application to pugillaria. The names of the
consuls, and the titles they respectively bore, generally in a contracted form, were
inscribed upon them. The nature of the carving, etc., was much alike in design, though
of varying quality. Of twelve described by Gori very little difference exists, being
full-length portraits of the consuls, and compartments exhibiting the peculiar games and
amusements of the people. A description of one, which he designates the " DlPTYCHON
LEODIENSE," will fully illustrate the nature of their extensive and elaborate ornament.
In the centre of each side is a portrait of the consul seated, holding in one hand a
baton, and in the other, upraised, a purse, as if in the act of throwing it to some victor
in the games. Above are three miniature portraits, various other ornaments, and the
inscription. Below, on one board, is a representation of a combat with wild beasts. On
the other are two men, leading out horses for the race, and beneath them a group, with
a ludicrous representation of two other men exhibiting the strength of their endurance
of pain by allowing crabs to fasten on their noses. The framework and general detail
are filled up with the best effect and proportion. He pronounces the inscription to refer
to ANASTASIUS, " Consul Orientis," A.D. 517, and his name and title as Anastasiits Pauhis
Probus Sabianus Pompeius, vir ilustris comes doniesticorum equitum, et consul ordinarius.1

The inscriptions on several others are of a like character, but one, the " Diptychon
Bituricense," relating to the above Anastasius, has almost similar words. This latter
diptych appears to have found its way into the Royal Library, Paris, as it is described
by Dr. Dibdin in his tour,2 as well as a letter inserted in it, written by a Mons. Mercier,
on the subject of Diptychs, taken principally from Gori.

For the better understanding of this part of the subject an illustration is given of a
1 Gori's "Thesaurus Vet. Diptychorum," i. - Vol. ii. 147.

BOOKS OF THE ANCIENTS.

diptych from the library of the Vatican. It refers to the Consul Boethius, who flourished
A.D. 487. Its character is seen in the engraving. A simikr figure, seated, with the
purse and upraised hand, is, on the other side, which bears part of the inscription : —

" narmanlroeThivsvceTinl
expppvsecconsordeTpaTric,"

and which Gori, in a lengthened description, interprets
as referring to " Manlhts Boetltius cottsul ordinarius et
patricius"

Of this description of ornament did many of the
side covers of books of former times consist, as we shall
have occasion soon to show ; and there can be but little
doubt that the Greeks and Romans were profuse in this
addition to the beauty of their literary treasures. Mont-
faucon,1 in his researches relative to ancient literature,
confirms many of the facts that have been brought for-
ward. He says : " The Greeks, after the custom of the
present day, fastened together the leaves of their books,
distributed into threes and fours, covered them with calf,
or some other skin generally thicker. They strengthened
the upper and lower part, where the book is more em-
bellished, with a wooden tablet glued to the side in order
that the leaves might adhere together more firmly."
And Schwarz2 that the "books of the Romans, about
the time of the Christian era, were covered at one time
with red and yellow leather, at another time with green
leather ; at one time with purple, at another with silver,
at another with gold." But this latter statement must
be received with some caution.

The authorities cited, and existing specimens of
ancient workmanship referred to in illustration of the
subject, amply prove that the Romans were as profuse
in the embellishment of their books as they were
careful in their preparation. They had also their large
paper copies, and what may be called their hot-pressed
productions, still notable in our day, being twice
polished with pumice.3 That the art must have arrived at a considerable degree of
perfection is further confirmed by the accounts of the number of volumes contained
in their public libraries, and which of necessity would require the protection binding
gives to preserve them from injury. In the celebrated Alexandrian Library, consisting

IVORY DIPTYCH, IN THE LIBRARY OF
THE VATICAN, ROME.

" Palasogr. Graecs," 26.

2 " De Ornament. Lib. Vet. Disp.," iii. 166.
Notes to Catullus, Ode xix.

BOOKS IN THE TIMES OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. 49

of seven hundred thousand volumes, and in the one subsequently formed at Constanti-
nople of upwards of a hundred and twenty thousand volumes, doubtless not only
the common necessity of preservation would be attended to, but also elegance and
embellishment studied. Zonarus relates that among other treasures in the latter library
there was a roll a hundred feet long, made of a dragon's gut or intestine, on which
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey were written in letters of gold.1 Of the splendour of the
Roman libraries it is reported that that of the younger Gordian was paved with
marble and ornamented with gold, that the walls were covered with glass and ivory,
and that the armouries and desks were made of ebony and silver.2

The honour of having suggested the foundation of a public free library at Rome
must be given to Julius Caesar. The scheme was afterwards carried out by his friend
C. Asinius Pollio, famous as a poet, an orator, and the historian of the Civil War. Pollio
died A.D. 4, being then eighty years of age ; the assassination of Caesar took place in the
year 44 B.C., so that the opening of the first public library at Rome must be placed
between these dates.

Nor were books in the time of the Romans so scarce as in periods nearer our
own day they seem to have been ; for, in addition to numerous public libraries,
we find many notices of those of private individuals, as that of Lucillus, mentioned
by Plutarch ; one at Tusculum named by Cicero ; that of Appellico the Teian, at
Athens, which Sylla took to Rome ; that of the Pisos found at Herculaneum,3 and
numerous others containing large collections of books. The testimony of Seneca,
Cicero, and Pliny relative to the pleasure they derived from their libraries also shows
that books were comparatively plentiful ; they were at that time an article of com-
merce. Catullus,4 in an ode to Calvus, who had presented him with the works of
some despicable authors, promises him a return of others as worthless, in search of which

he says : —

" Let but the morn appear, I'll run
To every bookstall in the town."

Pullox speaks of booksellers' shops as being among the features of seaport towns.5 We
also find mention of stalls for the sale of books in such places ; G and Martial describes
a bookseller's shop as having all the pillars or posts inscribed with the titles of
vendible books, the best being kept in the upper nidus, and the inferior in those below.7
That these libraria, or booksellers' shops, existed in almost every large city or town
under the Roman sway is abundantly confirmed by Horace,8 Pliny,9 Cicero,10 and others.
This trade in books must have given employment to a great number of BIBLIOPEGI, or
BOOKBINDERS, who were always called librorum concinnatores, cowpactores, and who
appear to have had under their direction the glutinatores, mentioned in Cicero's fourth
epistle to Atticus.

1 Warton's " Eng. Poetry," i. 104. 6 Dionisius of Halicarnassus, x. 5.

2 Astle's "Writing," introduction vii. 7 Epigram i. 118.

3 " Herculanensia," 91. 8 Epistle i. 20.

1 Ode xiv. N 9 Epistle ix. n.

5 Book VII. 33. 10 Philippic xi. 9.

4

5°

PART II.
A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

FRONTISPIECE TO FIRST EDITION.

( The relative proportions of the books in this illustration have not been taken into consideration
by the engraver.)
The book on the stand to the left an Aldine Cicero in original binding, King's College Library, Cambridge ;
the one to the right Queen Elizabeth's golden " Manual of Prayers " below, on the left, one from the library
of James I. ; and to the right a brass-bound volume of the fifteenth century, from Lincoln Cathedral.

CHAPTER V.

FIRST BOOKBINDINGS— IVORY DIP TYCHS— EARLY CHRISTIAN BOOKBINDINGS-
BYZANTINE BINDINGS.

BOUT the fourth century of the Christian era a change seems to have
been made in the form of books. The ancient rolls were gradually
superseded by the more convenient folded volumes, and the covers of
these lent themselves readily to the hand of the decorator. Book-
binding, as now practised, may be said to have then commenced, and
to owe its origin, in a great measure, to the influence of Christianity.
The flat form of book, however, as previously stated, was not
unknown to the Romans, nor to the Greeks ; but its use was confined chiefly to books
of accounts, memoranda, and lists of names, works of a literary character being usually
written upon rolls. The truth of this statement is easily proved by reference to ancient
paintings and sculpture, as well as to existing examples of rolls discovered in Egypt
and in Italy.

" As soon as the ancients had made square books more convenient to read than the
rolls, bookbinding was invented," writes M. Paul Lacroix, who proceeds to define book-
binding as " the art of reuniting the leaves stitched or stuck into a movable back,
between two squared pieces of wood, ivory, metal, or leather." '

From the beginning the forwarding or first portion of the bookbinder's work has
been constantly the same. The sheets were stitched together in order, and leather bands
fixed transversely at intervals on the back with their ends extending an inch or so
beyond the book ; these ends were then attached to wooden boards, which thus covered
the sides of the books ; finally a wrapper of skin or leather was superimposed, so as to
cover the back and the exterior surface of the wood, and its margins turned over the
edges of the boards, folded down inside, and fastened with glue. So far the process of
forwarding a binding has always been the same, the chief changes since the fifteenth
century being in the materials used, — the substitution of string for leathern bands,

1 M. Paul Lacroix, "The Arts of the Middle Ages," p. 471.
53

54 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

of cartoon or pasteboard for wooden sides, and of paper or cloth for the leathern
covers.1

These first bookbindings, which had no other object than that of preserving the
books, no other merit than solidity, soon became associated with ornament which,
influenced by Greek and Roman luxury, became splendid in appearance and of
intrinsic value as well as of artistic merit.2

One form of development of this taste for fine bindings appeared on the outer
leaves of consular diptychs, which were briefly referred to in the previous chapter. It
may be well to mention them again here, because carved ivory panels of diptychs
were in later times often placed upon the covers of precious manuscripts, and in this
way many beautiful specimens of carving have been handed down to our own days.
The use of consular diptychs extends over a period from the first or second century to the
sixth. The earliest known example is said to date from the middle of the third century,
and the latest belongs to the middle of the sixth.3

Theodosius, Emperor of Rome, promulgated a decree by which none but consuls
were allowed to present diptychs. This was done because of the honour attached to
the present.4 People of rank living in the provinces received and carefully preserved
these gifts from the magistrates. In course of time diptychs were given or bequeathed
to churches, where they were laid by in treasuries ; in a few instances they are still
preserved in the province to which they were sent originally. After the Roman Empire
had adopted the Christian religion, the consuls presented diptychs to the principal
bishops, who, receiving them as a testimony of goodwill and respect to the Church,
placed them upon the altars that the magistrate who gave them might be recommended
to the prayers of the congregation at the celebration of mass.5 The use and purpose
of diptychs in the public services of the Church have been a subject of much discussion,
but there can be no doubt that some of them were used to cover a few leaves of manu-
script or even whole gospels. Their origin is traceable to the very earliest Christian
times, perhaps to the apostolic age, as mention is made of them in the liturgy of
St. Mark.6

Upon ecclesiastical diptychs were inscribed, on the wax of the inner surface, the

1 Mr. B. Quaritch, " Examples of Bookbinding," introduction.

2 M. Paul Lacroix, " The Arts of the Middle Ages."

3 W. Maskell, "Ivories," p. 22.

4 Lex. xv., "Codex Theodosianus," Lib. xi. The standard book upon the subject of diptychs
is Gori's "Thesaurus Veterum diptychorum Consularium et Ecclesiasticorum " (Florence, 1759),
3 vols, folio. Gori describes not only the sculptured ivories, but also the plates of gold and silver, the
delicate workmanship and embellishments of these beautiful objects of mediaeval art. Since his time,
however, more examples have been discovered ; these are nearly all described by Westwood in his
admirable catalogue of "Fictile Ivories," published in 1876. Casts of most of these ivories have
been taken either by Westwood himself or by the Arundel Society. The best examples of carved
ivory diptychs in this country are to be seen at the British Museum, South Kensington Museum, and
at Liverpool.

5 Jules Labarte, "Arts of the Middle Ages," p. 11

6 W. Maskell, "Ivories," p. 39.

EARLY CHRISTIAN BOOKBINDINGS. 55

names of neophytes (newly baptised), of benefactors to the Church, of sovereigns, and
of bishops, as well as the names of the faithful who had died in the bosom of the Church,
saints, martyrs, priests, and laymen.1 To these were added the acts of religious rulers,
gifts to the Church, etc.2 Montfaucon states that the names of bishops were carefully
registered or erased, according to the purity or immorality of their lives.3

In addition to consular and ecclesiastical diptychs there is a large class of private
and devotional tablets. Very beautiful specimens of these are still extant ; but few
diptychs of the classic period can be regarded strictly as bookbindings, although some of
them may have been used for that purpose at a later date, precisely as panels of caskets
and furniture were often adapted by mediaeval bookbinders. The most interesting
examples of private diptychs now to be seen in England are the panels representing
./Esculapius and Hygiea in the Mayer Collection at Liverpool. In the library at Sens
are two tablets, one representing Bacchus in a car drawn by centaurs, the other Diana
in a chariot drawn by two bulls. The English examples are engraved at the end of
Labarte's book, and casts were taken by the Arundel Society. The Sens examples
are engraved in Labarte's " Album," also in Lacroix, " Arts of the Middle Ages." They
now adorn the covers of a thirteenth-century manuscript of " The Office of Fools." i

How came it that the Christian religion exercised so powerful an influence on the
form and outward garb of literature ? This is a question often asked, and not difficult to
answer satisfactorily. In the early days of the Church copies of the Gospels were placed
upon the table or altar (it was not till the tenth century that the cross was ever placed
there), and as the Christian ritual advanced the covers of these manuscripts were richly
adorned to accord with the other furniture of the altar. The book form was evidently
much more convenient than that of the roll for use in the services of the Church ; and
it seems probable that the establishment of a ritual and liturgy in the course of which
portions of the Gospels were read may have had considerable effect in leading to the
exclusive adoption of the folded instead of the rolled form of arranging a manuscript.0
There is little doubt that the custom of placing the Gospels conspicuously on the altar
led to their being sumptuously decorated on the exterior, and this may very possibly
have been done as early as the third century. No existing examples are known to be
of so great antiquity, but the ivory book-covers at the Public Library, Ravenna, cannot
be of much later date than those at Milan, which M. Labarte assigns to about the
year A.D. 400 ; and there is no reason to think that these were the earliest examples.

There may have been other causes which led to the abandonment of the ancient
rolls in favour of the folded book, but without doubt the custom of the early Church had
much to do with the change ; and since only the front of a book could be seen when the

1 Gori, tome i. 242.

2 Ibid., " Thesaurus Vet. Dip.," i. 2.

3 " Palasog. Grsecae," 34.

4 Office of Fools, a mediajval service, similar to the solemnities of " the Boy-bishop " practised in
some English cathedrals.

5 A. Nesbitt, F.S.A., "Vetusta Monumenta : The Evangelia Quatuor of Lindau."

56 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

volume was placed upon the altar, only the upper side of the cover was decorated, the
reverse being left plain and unadorned. The name given to such manuscripts of the
Gospels as were intended to be placed upon an altar and used in the service of the
Church was textus itexd), a word originally meaning texture, or tissue, something
woven : hence a combination. Seneca tells us that a contextus of several tabular — that is,
as we should say, a number of sheets placed together — was by the ancients called
caudcx, thence codices} To this day we speak of the great codices of the Gospels ;
as the Codex Alexandrianus, given by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Cyril Lucar, to
Charles I. in 1628, and now one of the chief treasures of the British Museum. The fine
book-covers in the treasury of the cathedral at Milan (as just stated) are not later than
the fifth century ; they are, perhaps, the earliest examples now extant of the covers of a
textus.2

There is, in the Barberini Library at Rome, a very early book cover of 4to form,
which is sculptured in high relief on ivory with the figure of an emperor on horseback.
Besides these there are extant in Europe very few book-covers of this early period.
In course of time the textus became an object of veneration ; perhaps the sacred symbols
and figures adorning the covers, in some measure, caused this feeling to arise in the
hearts of the people. However that may be, it became usual to carry round the textus
to receive the kiss of peace from the congregation, — an alteration of the earlier practice
of the mutual bestowal and reception of a kiss by all the members of the Church
assembled.

In the twelfth or thirteenth century the Pax, a small tablet often bearing a repre-
sentation of the Crucifixion, came into use in the Western Church, as a substitute for the
cover of the Gospels. The Pax should not be confounded with the ornamental cover
of a textus ; nor with the Pyx, which is a box, and sometimes the vessel for containing
the consecrated wafer. In the Greek Church the ornamented textus is still on certain
occasions, such as marriages, solemnly kissed ; 3 and in Russia it is frequently of great
size. One made for the Empress Natalia, mother of Peter the Great, is 3 feet long by
16 inches wide, and so heavy that it is with difficulty the priest can carry it. In the
early days of Christianity these Gospel books were usually of much smaller dimensions.

When the Emperor Constantine the Great founded a new capital upon the beautiful
shores of the Bosphorus he dedicated the city to Mary, the blessed mother of Christ.
No heathen temple was built within the walls of Byzantium, and the year of dedication,
A.D. 330, marked the triumph of Christianity over heathendom. To Byzantium came
the greatest artists of those times, who, if they were not all Christians, at least conformed
in outward appearance to the will of their imperial patron ; the works they produced
bear the stamp of Christian art.

In nature a period of decay follows a period of exuberance. The same principle
appears to regulate both the affairs of nations and the existence of art.

1 Seneca, " De Brevitate Vitas," xiii.

2 A. Nesbitt, F.S.A., " Vetusta Monumenta."

3 Ibid.

EARLY CHRISTIAN BOOKBINDINGS— BYZANTINE BINDINGS. 57

" Nations melt
From power's high pinnacle, when they have felt
The sunshine for a while, and downward go
Like lauwine loosened from the mountain's belt." '

The earliest examples of Christian art of the days of Constantine and his immediate
successors may claim to hold a place side by side with the best works of pagan times.
After the death of Constantine the artistic spirit rapidly declined, the efforts of several
emperors to foster and restore it were unavailing, and degradation in this particular
followed close upon the decay and final overthrow of the empire. But, at
Constantinople, the ancient traditions lingered after they had been forgotten in Italy,
and Persian influence helped to form the Byzantine style. The Byzantine artists'
conception of the "human form divine" was pure, though the school soon began
to revel in detail and delight in over-elaboration of ornament. Nowhere are these
peculiarities better exemplified than in the carvings, enamels, and goldsmiths' work,
especially on tablets and book-covers. The great ivory tablet in the British Museum,
whereon is carved the figure of an angel, and 4he beautiful book-cover in the national
library at Paris rival the best work of classic times, and excel in dignity and beauty of
workmanship all productions of a similar character made in Western Europe till the
revival of art in the thirteenth century.

The bookbindings of this period were magnificent. We read of massive square
books, which were carried in the public processions of the Byzantine emperors in the
middle of the fifth century ; and doubtless these mighty records impressed the populace
with awe, and added to the dignity of the sovereign ruler. The bindings of these
splendid volumes were in green, red, blue, or yellow leather, ornamented with painted
portraits of the emperor, and thin gold rods placed in lines across the sides so as
to form lozenge-shaped patterns.2 This same lozenge -shaped pattern survived in
Germany till the sixteenth century, and was brought to England by the earliest printers.

Before the sixth century commenced precious stones began to play a prominent
part in the external decoration of books. " Byzantine coatings," as they were called,
were principally of metal, — gold, silver, and copper-gilt, — into which jewels were
embedded. Very often an ivory carving was placed in the centre of the cover, and a
border of gold and jewels set around it. One subject of frequent occurrence is the
Saviour, seated, holding a book in one hand, while the other is raised in the act of
benediction. The royal library at Munich contains the finest specimens of this
description of binding. The British Museum and the Bodleian exhibit a few examples,
but no very early ones. In the Bodleian there is a carved ivory, representing Christ
seated, an exquisitely finished piece of late Byzantine work, now fixed upon the silver
binding of the Codex Ebnerianus, a famous Greek twelfth-century manuscript. The
ivory bears traces of gold, and colour with which it was formerly adorned. (MS. Misc.
Gr, 136.)

1 Lord Byron, " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," Canto IV., stanza xii.

8 Joseph Caudall, "On Bookbindings," The Bookbinder, vol. i. 16. See further, Lacroix, and
" Notitia Dignitatum Imperii."

58 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

The tenth-century copy of the four Gospels in Greek, now in the British Museum,
calls for attention. It was bound in a Byzantine binding, probably not later than the
twelfth century. The wooden boards are covered with tarnished crimson velvet, and
lined with fine canvas richly embroidered with coloured silks. Round the upper cover
are nailed thin plates of silver-gilt, with figures in relief, probably contemporary
with the manuscript. The plates along the top and bottom contain half-length
representations of St. Peter and St. Paul, and the four Evangelists, with their names ;
those at the sides apparently represent the overthrow of the heresiarchs Nestor
and Noetus in three designs, with inscriptions ; while the central plate (of much later
work) represents Christ between the Virgin and St. John, all with enamelled nimbi.
(Additional MS., 28, 815.)

The libraries on the Continent are much richer in early gems of this description
than those in our own country, and many of the most important specimens have been
engraved or photographed. Dr. Dibdin has described some of them with great
minuteness.1 A book of the Gospels, translated in A.D. 370 by Ulphilas, Bishop of Moesia,
is an example of the costly style in which books were adorned in early times. It was
called the " Silver book of Ulphilas " from the fact of its being bound in massive silver.2
It was such magnificence as this that called forth the exclamation of St. Jerome :
" Your books are covered with precious stones, though Christ died naked before the gate
of His temple ! " A similar remark is recorded of the Eastern philosopher and poet
Sadi, who said : " The Koran was given to reform the conduct of men, and men have
only thought of embellishing its pages." 3

A book presented by the Emperor Justin to Pope Hormisda between the years 518
and 523 was bound in plates of gold and enriched with precious stones to the weight
of fifteen pounds. Leo III., who was raised to the pontificate in 795, gave to various
churches copies of the Gospels, splendidly ornamented. The abbot Angilbert, on the
restoration of the Abbey of St. Riquier, A.D. 814, presented to it a copy of the Gospels,
in silver plates, " marvellously adorned with gold and precious stones." Another
copy, written in letters of gold and silver, and bound in gold, enriched with gems, was
presented to his church by Hincmar, on becoming Archbishop of Rheims in 845.
The Emperor Michael, about the year 855, sent as a present to St. Peter's a Gospel of
most pure gold with divers precious stones. Everard, Count of Friuli, bequeathed to
his children by will, A.D. 86 1, his Bible, and a number of other books, among which were
Gospels bound in wrought gold and silver and carved ivory.4 In 1022 the Emperor
Henry II., on recovering from illness at the Monastery of Monte Casino, presented to it
a copy of the Gospels, covered on one side with pure gold and most precious gems.
Returning the same year into Germany, he had an interview and exchanged presents
with Robert, King of France ; but of all the rich gifts offered by that king, the emperor

1 T. F. Dibdin, " Bibliographical Tour," iii. 262 and 460.

2 Astle's "Writing," 87 and 196.

3 M. Reinaud, " Monuments Arabes, etc.," Tom. i., p. 26.

4 See further as to Count Everard's will, p. 66.

RYZANT1.XE MKDINGS.

59

accepted only a copy of the Gospels, bound in gold and precious stones. Desidcrius,
who became abbot of the above monastery in 1058, provided it with many costly books ;
and the Empress Agnes made many rich gifts to the Church, and among others a copy
of the Gospels, with one side- of the cover of cast silver, with chased or embossed work,
very beautifully gilt.1 These specimens will suffice to give an idea of the labour and

ANCIENT BINDING (? I ITH CENTURY) ORNAMENTED WITH GOLD AND JEWELS.

(Formerly in the library of the Marquis de Ganay, now ill South Kensington Museum.)

treasure expended on the external decoration of books at this early period of the history
of Europe.

It would not be right, however, to pass on without a brief reference to a fine ivory
binding now at the British Museum. There is no doubt that the plaques which adorn
the sides of this binding were intended for the purpose they now serve. This can be
1 British Mag., ix. 249, " Papers on the Dark Ages," No. xiii.

60 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

said of very few early ivory carvings. The manuscript is a Latin Psalter written and
illuminated for Melissenda, daughter of Baldwin, King of Jerusalem (1118 — 1131), and
wife of Fulk, Count of Anjou, and King of Jerusalem (1131 — H44-)- Inserted in the
wooden covers and surrounded by a red morocco binding are two fine Byzantine
ivory carvings which Du Sommerard supposes may date from the seventh or eighth
century.1 On the upper cover are six scenes from the life of David, enclosed within
circles, the figures in the intervening spaces symbolising the triumph of the Virtues
over the Vices ; the whole being surrounded with an elaborate interlaced and floriated
border. Close to each figure is a label with the name of the person, animal, virtue, or
vice represented. The figure in the left-hand upper corner is " BONITAS," the next
" Fides," and so on. In the same way, lest there should be any doubt about the people
and objects represented in the medallions, similar inscriptions are placed beside them.
It will be noticed that the female figures in the spaces between the medallions wear a
tunic with large hanging sleeves. This kind of sleeve is called a maunch, and was
fashionable in England at the end of the eleventh and the beginning of the next
century. It may have been in vogue upon the Continent earlier. These and other
peculiarities in the dress and armor of the male figures lead us to the conclusion
that the carving is not so old as Du Sommerard supposes. The general design of
the under cover is similar, with six scenes in medallions representing the works of
Mercy, and surrounded with figures of birds and beasts. At the top is the name
Herodius, probably that of the artist. Both covers are jewelled with small rubies
and turquoises. The colour of the ivory is well preserved, and the whole appearance
most delicate and beautiful. The clasps are gone, but their position is indicated by
depressions in the ivory. The back is covered with a piece of embroidery. The book
formerly belonged to the Grande Chartreuse at Grenoble, and in 1840 it was in the
possession of Dr. Commarment of Lyons. It was purchased for the Museum from
Messrs. Payne and Foss in 1845. (Egerton MS., n 39.)

Taking M. Labarte for our guide, the main points in the history of Byzantine
art may be epitomised as follows. When, under Constantine, Christian art was at
length enabled to display external symbols of its existence, it adopted the then pre-
vailing style of pagan Rome, a degenerate form of the classic ; and being unable to
create for itself a new technica, worked out new subjects on old lines.2 From the
examples of carved ivories and bookbindings already described, it is evident that some
Christian artists attained a very high standard of excellence ; but then, as now, there were
also artists of inferior skill. Examples of this period are of course rare, and
consequently little can be said about them. From the commencement of the sixth
century Persian art began to affect the school of Byzantium. During the long and
glorious reign of Justinian (A.D. 527—565) art maintained its position at Constantinople

1 Du Sommerard, Album to " Les Arts au Moyen Age," Tom. v. of the text, pp. 107, 162 ; Plate
XXIX. in Album ; the vignettes in five plates in the eighth series, Plates XII. — XVI. ; see also
H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A., "Remarkable Bindings in the British Museum," Plate I.

2 Labarte, "Arts of the Middle Ages," pp. 2. 17, 18, etc.

CARVED IVORY COVER (OBVERSE) OF THE PSALTER OF

QUEEN MELISSENDA. ? I 2th CENTURY.

(From the original in the British Museum. J

BYZANTINE BINDINGS. 6 1

without progress and without decline, and professed long afterwards to adhere faithfully
to its old traditions ; but from that period it began to develop distinctive characteristics
— e.g., a peculiar angularity of outline, a meagreness and elongation of form, and a
richness of costume indicating Oriental influence. All these points are strongly
marked on the carved and wrought bindings of this period. In the tenth century the
school of Constantinople was still a learned school, from which Italy and Germany
borrowed artists, who, migrating, carried their art with them to distant countries,
so that the Byzantine style lost its local importance and definite geographical position,
and became general throughout the greater part of Europe.

The Doge Orseolo employed celebrated Byzantine artists to beautify the Church of
St. Mark at Venice, the Emperor Henry II. invited Greek artists to his court, and in
1066 Didier, Abbot of Monte Casino, caused works to be executed in that abbey by
artists of this school. In the twelfth century the best artists emigrated from Con-
stantinople to the West, and at that time the Byzantine method was superseded by the
newly developed and more vigorous Gothic style. The traditions of the school were,
however, recorded, and have been carried on to the present day by Greek artists
fostered by the Eastern Church. There is a notable example of this survival in a magni-
ficent silver binding, parcel gilt and worked in respousse. It is dated A.D. 1730, and may
be seen at South Kensington Museum. After the sack of Constantinople by the Turks,
the Greek artists retired to the convents of Mount Athos, where they were welcomed by
craftsmen of many kinds. From that time the Holy Mountain became the sole focus of
religious art in the Oriental Church, and to this day the libraries of those monasteries
contain wonderful treasures both of books and bindings. Other and more war-like
occupations are said to engage the attention of the Fathers at the Holy Mountain at
present, and their thoughts, when not directed to religion, are supposed to be busy
upon politics. Better would it be for themselves and for mankind, if their energies
were devoted to art industries, like the making and binding of books.

A MEDIAEVAL SCRIBE AT WORK IN HIS STUDY.

(From the title page of a book printed at Venice in 1505.)

CHAPTER VI.

CAROLINGIAN PERIOD— BOOKBINDINGS IN IVORY— GOLDSMITHS' WORK
AND ENAMEL.

T has been shown in the preceding chapters that for upwards of two
thousand years the art of bookbinding, by means of attaching the
leaves to the back and affixing boards to the sides, has been practised,
the addition of embellishment following as a matter of taste, if not
of necessity. Having established these facts, it will be necessary
to consider the subject in its connection with the monastic institu-
tions of Europe. From the annals of religious communities, and
the appearance of bindings of the seventh and eighth to the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, we shall be able to show what was the state of the art at that time,
and to confirm what has been advanced as to the knowledge of it possessed by the
ancients.

It will be necessary to advert to the state of literature and scarcity of books in this
and other countries of Europe in early times, this being partly illustrative of the
progress of the art, connected as the making and binding of books will now be found to
be. Before the introduction of paper made from linen, books were so scarce and dear as
to be beyond the reach of all but the rich, and it may reasonably be computed that the
price of books in the ninth century was a hundredfold their present value. In Roman
times books were chiefly transcribed by slaves, whose labour was cheap ; but when
slavery ceased, though the materials of which books were made had been as cheap and
plentiful as paper is at present, the labour of multiplying copies in manuscript would
always have kept them comparatively scanty. Hence learning was almost exclusively
confined to people of rank. For five hundred years after Christ the papyrus was in
general use ; but when the Saracens conquered Egypt in the seventh century it
could no longer be procured. Parchment, the only substance for writing upon which
then remained, was so difficult to obtain that it was customary to erase the older

62

CAROLTNGTAN PERIOD. 63

writing, and Sophocles or Tacitus resigned the parchment to missals, homilies, and
the Golden Legend.1 In this manner many of the best Greek and Roman classics
were for ever lost, though some have in late times been recovered, from the imperfect
manner in which the first writing was erased.2 History records many facts which
place in a striking light the scarcity and consequent value of books during the, so
called, dark ages. Private persons seldom possessed any books, and even monasteries
could sometimes boast of no more than a single missal. The collections which the
ancients possessed did not in those times exist, for the libraries, particularly those of
Italy, which abounded in innumerable and inestimable treasures of literature, were, as
before stated, everywhere destroyed by the precipitate rage and barbarous ignorance
of the northern armies. Of the rarity of books, Warton, in the second Dissertation to
his " History of English Poetry," has given a long account. During this period the
monasteries became the principal depositories and schools of art. Monasteries were
more tranquil than the outside world, and to them the arts fled for refuge ; artists
became monks and monks became artists ; the manuscripts and illuminations executed
by monks attest their skill in designing and executing the most beautiful and complex
subjects1"' And it is evident from various accounts left us that the religious were
not only the writers and illuminators, but also the binders of books in the times
of the Saxons, and they continued to practice the art until the invention of printing.
The monks and students in monasteries were the principal labourers in this business,
and sometimes it was part of the sacrist's duty to bind and clasp the books used for
the service of the Church.4

On the other hand, from the time of the Romans all through the Middle Ages
there were in most cities of Europe secular craftsmen, among whom the bookbinder
was, perhaps, not the least important. The leather-worker, the goldsmith, the sculptor,
and the worker in enamel would at times combine their labours upon the cover of a
single volume, and the man who bound and ornamented books would probably unite
with his craft trades of a kindred nature. Later on bookbinders enrolled themselves
under various trade guilds. Monasticism doubtless exercised a fostering care upon
all the arts ; but during the seven or eight centuries which passed between the intro-
duction into Europe of the system of religious isolation and the Reformation great
changes took place in the habits of monks. The growth of the municipalities and the
establishment of trade guilds in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries exercised a
considerable influence both upon art and the occupations of the monks.

The history of monasticism, like the history of states, divides itself broadly into
three great periods, — of growth, of glory, and of decay ." The simple habits and constant

1 Gibbon's " Rome," v. 380.

- Edinburgh Review, xlviii. 353. Such manuscripts are called palimpsests, and some of the most
famous specimens have been described on pp. 29, 37, etc.
3 "Specimens of Ancient Sculpture," ii.

* Warton, ii. 244.

* The Rev. J. G. Smith, M.A., " Christian Monasticism," p. 9.

64 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

labours of the early monks form a striking contrast to the life of ease, luxury, and
sometimes of depravity led by the brethren of great and wealthy abbeys in the fifteenth
century. The former performed manual labour of various kinds, and bound their books
themselves ; the latter are more likely to have employed others to work for them.

Yet even in those late and degenerate times monks occasionally busied themselves
with useful manual work. Tritheimius, Abbot of Spanheim, at the end of the fifteenth
century, did not forget bookbinding in his enumeration of the different employments
of his monks ; but then Tritheimius was a reformer. " Let that one," says he, " fasten
the leaves together and bind the book with boards ; you prepare those boards ; you
dress the leather ; you the metal plates which are to adorn the binding."

Division of labour, as recommended here, was possible in a great monastery. In
the small communities of earlier times it was not possible to the same degree ; but
though the binding of an ordinary book in all its processes may have been the work
of a single craftsman, we may well believe that the incrustation of enamel, jewels, and
goldsmith's work on some of the glorious bindings still preserved was the achievement
of more than one man's skill.

However, the library of Abbot Tritheimius (he died in 1516) was one of the
wonders of the fifteenth century. It consisted of about two thousand manuscripts,
and excited such general attention that princes and other eminent men travelled from
distant countries to visit the book-loving abbot and his library. About the time of
the invention of printing a library of six or eight hundred volumes formed a royal
collection, the cost of which could only be furnished by a prince. At the beginning
of the fourteenth century the library of Louis IX. contained only four copies of classical
authors. We may suppose then that four centuries before that time books were
exceedingly scarce.

By the rule of Saint Benedict, promulgated from his high retreat on Monte Casino,
between Latium and Campania, about the year A.D. 530, — the same year in which the
schools of Athens were suppressed, and Justinian published his famous code, — a pen
and tablets to write upon formed part of the necessary equipment of every monk.

The great distinction of Benedict's rule, a distinction which has left its mark on
literature for all time, was the substitution of study for mere manual labour. Not
that monks were to be less laborious, they were rather to spend more time in work ;
but their work was to be less servile, of the head as well as of the hand, beneficial
to future ages, not merely furnishing sustenance for the bodily wants of an isolated
community.1 To this may be traced the love of literary pursuits, always a charac-
teristic of the Benedictines. Of the books and bookbindings of the Benedictines
we have more to say elsewhere. Here we must, however, draw attention to another
class of men who, though living within the monastic precincts, and often adopting the
outward dress of the monks, were, in fact, only lay brethren, skilled in various handi-
crafts or trades. At Osney Abbey, Oxford, a number of workmen, tailors, book-
binders, illuminators, and wax-chandlers, who lived outside the water-gate, had their
1 The Rev. J. Gregory Smith, M.A., " Christian Monasticism," p. 74.

CAR0L1NGIAN PERIOD. 65

workshops within the abbey precincts ; similar arrangements prevailed at other great
monasteries.1 When monks, in course of time, ceased to be regarded as laymen, and
by the very fact of their profession began to be ranked with the clergy, and as the
original simplicity of monastic life began to be lost, the need was felt for a class
of persons in every monastery to assist the monks in some of their more ordinary
occupations, and so leave them more leisure for the services of their chapel and for
meditations in their cells.2 We are disposed to think that among the lay brethren
attached to every great monastery there were one or more bookbinders, who, if
not followers of the craft entirely, at least assisted in many ways, by providing
material for the scriptorium, and performing other services in connection with book-
binding.

Moreover, the monks were not the only patrons of literature and art ; princes and
nobles, often munificent encouragers of all that tends to elevate and civilise mankind,
did much to promote a taste for fine bindings. There was in those early days of
Christianity no more popular gift than an illuminated manuscript. Princes and
prelates alike bestowed such marks of favour upon their favourite monasteries and
churches. Leo III., on becoming Pope in 795, gave splendidly adorned Gospel books
to various churches ; and the Emperor Michael (about 855 A.D.) sent a Gospel decorated
with pure gold and precious stones as a present to St. Peter's.3

But the most distinguished patron of art and literature in the period usually
called " the dark ages " was the Emperor Charlemagne, who gave his name not
only to a race of kings, but also to a style of art. Having conquered Europe he
wisely gave his people employment both for hand and mind. The old chronicles
relate how the Pope crowned Charles Emperor of Rome, while the people cried out
with one general voice : —

" Happinesse, long life, and victory to Charles Augustus crowned the great and
peaceable Emperour of the Romaines, always happy and victorious."

This was done on Christmas Day in the year A.D. 800, — a date which marks an
epoch in the history of art in general and of bookbinding in particular. The events
immediately following brought Charlemagne in contact with the empire of the East.
The Empress Irene about that time had a dispute with the bishops concerning images.
Charlemagne, although it is said he could not write, composed a treatise on this
subject, and welcomed the fugitive artists, whom the iconoclasts had driven from Con-
stantinople. But Charlemagne did more than this : he invited British scribes to visit
him on the Continent, and by bringing into contact the Celtic and Byzantine schools
produced a new style of caligraphy as well as of bookbinding, a style now known as
the Carlovingian, or more properly, Carolingian.

To the rage of the iconoclasts in the East, France, Germany, and other countries
in the west of Europe owe the advancement of the arts among their own people.

1 The Rev. F. Goldie, "A Bygone Oxford," p. 11.

2 The Rev. J. Gregory Smith, M.A., " Christian Monasticism," p. 210.

3 The Bookbinder, vol. i., p. 16.

66 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

This progression is noticeable in many branches of art, especially in bookbinding,
which includes adornments in carved ivory, enamel, goldsmiths' work, and leather work.
In inventories and wills of this period books handsomely bound, and cases to contain
them, are mentioned as well as gold ornaments, statuettes, diptychs, and other valuables.
Charlemagne gave to the Abbey of St. Riquier a magnificent book of the Gospels
covered with plates of silver and ornamented with gold and gems.1 The Book of St.
Maximinus of Treves, which came from Ada, sister of Charlemagne, was ornamented
with an engraved agate representing Ada, the emperor, and his sons. Count Everard,
son-in-law to Louis le Debonnaire (778 — 840 A.D.), left by his will writing-tablets,
a chalice, a coffer, an evangelisterium ornamented with bas-reliefs, and a sword and
belt, all with decorations of ivory. To the same period belonged the carved ivory
cover of a book preserved till 1727 in the Convent of Hautvillers, near Epernay.

We here transcribe from the introduction to the Catalogue of the Public Library,
Brussels, a catalogue of the library of Count Everard ; it is one of the earliest lists
known, and has not been printed in any English book : —

" Le compte Everard, par son testament, partage sa bibliotheque entre ses trois fils, ses trois
filles, et sa veuve. Le meilleur moyen d'appre'cier cette bibliotheque est de la reproduire, non
pas selon l'ordre de l'ecrit testamentaire., mais selon l'ordre des matieres de l'ancienne classifica-
tion bibliographique ; on verra que cette bibliotheque £tait bien composee, et meme riche pour un
haut fonctionnaire carlovingien du royaume d'ltalie ou de Lombardie.

Bibliotheque Liguee par Everard, Comte de Frioul, en l'annee 875 a.d.

Theologie.
1. Bible.

4. Evange'liaire dont le premier est orne' d'or, le second d'argent, le troisieme d'ivoire.

5. Missel, le premier est orne d'or et d'argent, le second d'ivoire, le troisieme quotidien, etc.
1. Passionnaire (Voir Histoire).

3. Lectionnaires, le premier orne d'or et d'argent, le second d'ivoire, le troisieme intitule^ etc.

De epistolis et evangeliis.

1. Antiphonnaire, orn£ d'ivoire.

2. Collectaneum et commentarium.

4. Psautiers et un livre d'heures avec psaumes ; le premier double, le second orne' d'ivoire ;

un exemplaire est ecrit en lettres d'or.
1. Simple livre d'heures.

3. Traites d'exposition, sur Elie et Aehab, sur Ezechiel et sur les epitres de St. Paul.

11. Autres traites de St. Augustin, de St. Jerome, et autres livres ascdtiques, savoir: de verbis
Domini (3 exemplaires), de civitate Dei, enchiridion, de utilitate, de quatuor virtutibus
(2 exemp.), de hoc quod Jacobes ait : qui totam legem servaverit, etc.

1. Traite" de St. Ephrem.

2. Id. de Smaragde.

1. Id. de regie monastique : De doctrina St. Basilii.

1 M. Paul Lacroix, "The Arts in the Middle Ages," pp. .471, 472.

BOOKBINDINGS IN IVORY. 67

Jurisprudence.
1. De constitutionibus principum et de edictis imperatorum.
1. Liber Aniani.

1. Leges Francorum et Riturarium et Longobardorum et Alamsenorum et Bavariorum.
1. Autre exemplaire : Legum Longobardorum.

Sciences et Arts.
1. Liber rei militaris.
• 1. Liber bestiarum.
1. Phisionomia Loxi, medici.

Littcrature et Melanges Litteraires et Philologiques.

3. Grammaires et vocabulaires. Liber glossarum et explanationum et dierum ; ordinem

priorum principiorum, Apollonii, etc.
1. Alcuini ad Widonem Comitem.

Histoire et Polygraphie.
1. Exemplaires : Synonima Isidori.
1. Cosmographia ethici philosophi.

4. Libri Magni Orozii Pauli ; item Isidori Fulgentii et Martini episcoporum.

1. Gesta pontiff cum romanor. 1. Gesta Francorum.

2. Exemplaires : Vitae S. Martini.

1. Vitse patrum. Plus le passionnaire designe a. la Theologie.

Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims in 845, orders covers to be made for the works
of St. Jerome with plaques of ivory, and also for a sacramentary and lectionary.1 The
illustration on page 68 represents a fine cover, not later than the eleventh century, now in
the treasury of the cathedral at Essen. To these may be added two ivory plaques, now
forming the cover to a sacramentary of Metz, in the National Library, Paris ; a bas-relief
on a book of Gospels at Tongres, in the diocese of Liege ; and a book-cover in the public
library at Amiens, carved with representations of the baptism of Clovis and with two
miracles of Remigius. The use of ivory for book-covers was continued from the eighth
to the sixteenth century. Very few examples of goldsmiths' work of the period imme-
diately preceding the Carolingian epoch have come down to our time. The gifts of
Theodolinda, Queen of the Lombards (A.D. 616), to the Basilica of Monza are almost the
only bookbindings of those days extant ; they consist of a rich box enclosing a manu-
script of selections from the Gospels, and the cover of an evangeliary ornamented with
jewels. After Charlemagne had subjected to his sway a vast empire he found artists
ready to carry out his plans for the adornment of buildings and furniture of all
sorts. By far the most magnificent example of bookbinding of the Carolingian
period now preserved in England is the upper cover of a noble copy of the four Gospels,
once belonging to the Abbey of Lindau on Lake Constance, and now the property
of the Earl of Ashburnham. The under cover, which is of an earlier date, is Celtic in
1 W. Maskell, " Ivories."

68 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

character, and therefore a description of it has been reserved for the chapter on Celtic
bookbinding (see p. 82).

The upper cover of this wonderful binding measures 13! by 10J inches, and is
composed entirely of gold and jewels. In the centre is a cross, the upper and lower arms

BINDING OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, IN THE TREASURY OF THE CATHEDRAL OF ESSEN, NEAR DUSSELDORF.

of which measure 4 inches each, the lateral 2\ inches, both being 2 inches wide. This
cross is formed by a structure of open work in gold \ inch high by § inch wide.
The sides are formed by arcades, wider in the interior than the exterior, made of fillets
with granulated surface. The upper face of this border is covered with filigree in
small compartments with a gem or pearl set in the centre of each. Four large pearls
occupy the inner corners of the cross, four sapphires the centres of the ends. The

GOLDSMITHS' WORK AND ENAMEL. 69

spaces between these are filled with carbuncles and pearls, set alternately, thirty-two of
each, not including the four large pearls. The centre of the spaces between the arms of
the cross contain each a group of jewels set on small lions' feet i inch high. Similar
ornaments are placed in the border, one at each corner, and one at the terminations of
the cross, the remainder of the border being set with three rows of stones or pearls.1 It
is of South German workmanship of the end of the 'ninth century.

ENAMELS.

Beside goldsmiths' work and carvings in ivory, enamels now begin to be used in
the adornment of book-covers. The art of enamelling upon metals was unknown
in both Greece and Italy at the beginning of the third century. It was, however,
practised in the industrial cities of Western Gaul 2 and in Britain ; but during the
invasions and wars which desolated the West from the fourth to the eleventh century,
almost all the arts languished, while that of enamelling nearly died out. While
this art was slumbering in Western Europe it had taken root in Constantinople,
and was coming into notice in Italy. Towards the middle of the ninth century it
reached its zenith at the Eastern capital. A century later, as before stated, Doge
Orseolo ordered from Constantinople the Pala d'Oro for the high altar of St. Mark,
Venice, and at the beginning of the eleventh century the Emperor St. Henry employed
Greek artists to decorate with enamels the covers of his books of prayers.3

To enable us to identify enamelled bindings of a particular school or period it is
necessary to know something about the various kinds of enamel made in different
parts of Europe. The art of enamelling was known in very early times, and its use
may be traced among almost all civilised nations of antiquity. It is still practised to
perfection by the Chinese and Japanese, and to a smaller extent by the Persians and
other Asiatic peoples.

Enamel is applied to metals in three different ways, and accordingly three distinct
classes of enamels are recognised : —

1. Embedded enamels, including cloisonne and cliampleve.

2. Translucid enamels upon relief.

3. Painted enamels.

Embedded enamels, the most ancient kind, were freely used to ornament book-
covers from the Carolingian period down to the fourteenth century. After that date
plaques of translucent enamel were occasionally placed upon the covers of very precious
manuscripts. Painted enamels, invented in the fourteenth century and chiefly made at
Limoges in the fifteenth century, were rarely used for bookbinding.

1 For this description I am indebted to the able monograph by Mr. A. Nesbitt, F.S.A., entitled
" Two Memoirs on the ' Evangelia Quatuor," once belonging, to the Abbey of Lindau, and now to the
Earl of Ashburnham, F.S.A." Being Part III. of " Vetusta Monumenta," vol. vi. There are two plates-
The manuscript was exhibited at the Exhibition of Bookbindings at the Burlington Fine Art Club in
1891.— Ed.

2 Labarte, " Handbook," p. 131.

3 Ibid., p. 132.

70 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

CLOISONNE is the name given to enamel embedded in filigree fastened upon a
plate of metal. The design is first formed in outline by means of fine strips of metal,
or flat wire,. set edgewise, soldered upon a metal surface ; the cells thus formed are then
filled with the vitreous compounds of various colours forming the enamel.

Champleve is the term used to describe enamel embedded in cavities hollowed
out of metal plates. The design being engraved on metal, those portions of the surface
which are intended to be covered with enamel are scraped away, forming small hollows
of definite form, into which the enamel is placed.

Both sorts of enamel easily lend themselves to the adornment of book-covers, and
when used upon the binding of vellum manuscripts answer the double purpose of orna-
ments and also weights to keep the leaves of the book close together ; they were often
mounted on metal plates and wooden boards of considerable thickness. If used upon
the binding of a modern paper book, where lightness is one of the essentials, they
would be out of place ; but to many an old manuscript they have formed armour of
proof against the assaults of damp, dust, insects, and other enemies of books.

Byzantine enamels— i.e., those fabricated by Greek artists or Italians following the
Greek method — were executed in cloisonne; while the enamels of Limoges and the
German school were made in the champleve. This distinction is important. The art,
it is supposed, was introduced into Constantinople from Asia, where it had reached
great perfection. Oriental models being cloisonne, the Greek artists followed the same
method in making their enamels.

It has been stated that enamels were made in Gaul at an early period, and besides
a few choice examples there is also the written testimony of Philostratus, a Greek living
at Rome in the days of the Emperor Septimus Severus (early in the third century), to the
effect that the Barbarians living near the ocean pour colours upon heated brass, so that
they adhere and become like stone and preserve the design represented.1 In later times
this, the cJiampleve method, was largely practised at Limoges, and most of the old
enamelled book-covers now preserved in churches and museums belong to this class.

TRANSLUCID ENAMELS, although in point of time belonging to a later period,
will fitly find a place in this chapter. To Italian artists living late in the thirteenth
century the brilliancy and imperishable colours of the old enamels were insufficient
to atone for stiffness of outline, crudity of shading, and want of perspective, which
were their chief characteristics. Besides, the goldsmiths required material more costly
and of less bulk than copper plates. So in the thirteenth the thick and clumsy
enamels of the twelfth century gave place to fine chasings covered with transparent or
translucent enamels. The engraving is seen through the colours, and in some instances
the heads and hands of the figures are covered with enamel as transparent as crystal.
When appropriately mounted in metal frames enamels of this kind make most beautiful
bookbindings ; but they have two disadvantages, — they are brittle, the enamel being easily
chipped from the metal plate, and the plate itself by reason of its intrinsic value is a
tempting morsel for the hand of a thief. Few of these bindings have come down to
1 Philostratus, "Icon.," Lib. I., cap. xxvii.

GOLDSMITHS' WORK AND ENAMEL. 71

our time. The finest and most perfect example known to the editor is now at the
Bodleian Library, Oxford ; it forms the cover of a Latin psalter, a thirteenth-century
manuscript on vellum. Each side consists of a single silver plate enamelled with
translucent colours of great depth and brilliancy. The enamels measure 3A- by 1-f
inches, and are enclosed by borders of silver-gilt foliage. The subjects represented are
the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin and the Annunciation. This beautiful binding is
fully described and reproduced in colours in " Historic Bindings in the Bodleian." 1

Specimens of enamel binding in France may be seen at the Cluny Museum,
where are two Limoges enamels, one representing the adoration of the Magi, the other
the monk Etienne de Muret, founder of the Order of Grandmant (twelfth century),
conversing with St. Nicholas.

As examples of book-covers in enamel we may also mention, —

1. A manuscript cover now in the National Library, Paris. Four little cloisonne
enamels, forming a flower, are placed with a precious stone at each angle of the upper
panel of this cover, and serve as corner-pieces to some gold relief very carefully
executed. The colours used are opaque, white, light blue, and semi-translucid green.
The date is said to be quite as early as the seventh century, and the workmanship is
Byzantine.2 (MS. Suppl. Latin No. 11 18.)

2. The rich cover of an evangeliary of the eleventh century, also at Paris, written
upon purple vellum in letters of gold. On the upper panel of this cover is a fine slab
of ivory carved in high relief, enclosed in a rich border of gold, consisting of two bands
ornamented with pearls and precious stones cut en cabochon. Between these two bands
are placed on each side five little plaques of cloisonne enamel set in the panel of the
cover like precious stones. The colours used are opaque, red and white, and semi-
translucid blue, green, and yellow. This binding is not later than the twelfth century.3
(MS. Suppl. Latin No. 650.)

3. At Munich, in the library, may be seen an evangeliary enriched with
miniatures, one of which represents the Emperor Henry II. (1024) and his wife
Cunegunda. The upper side of the cover is decorated with an ivory carving surrounded
by a border of gold ornamented with cabochons, pearls, and enamels. At the corners
are medallions representing the evangelistic symbols, and between are twelve others
with half-length figures of Christ and eleven apostles. These medallions are finely
executed . in cloisonne' enamel. The draperies are in brilliant colours, the flesh tints in
rose enamel. The monogram of Christ and the names of the apostles, in Greek
characters, are traced out by the thin strips of gold which form the partitions on a level
with the enamel. In a fillet surrounding the ivory is an inscription in Roman capita!
letters, setting forth that this cover was executed by order of Henry II.4 (MS. No. 37.)

1 W. Salt Brassington, "Historic Bindings in the Bodleian Library, Oxford," Plate IV., pp. 8, 9.
- M. Champollion-Figeac, Revue ArcMologique, 2" Annee, p. 89; M. Labarte, "Handbook,
p. 1 10.

3 M. Labarte, "Handbook," p. in.
1 Ibid., p. ii3.

72 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

4. In the same library is a rich box in the form of a book-cover containing an
evangeliary of the twelfth century. On the upper side of this cover is a plate of gold
representing Christ in the act of giving the benediction. The nimbus and the Alpha
and Omega round the head of Christ are in cloisonne enamel, as are likewise two
medallions in the border which surrounds the figure ; one represents Christ, the other
the Virgin. The enamels used are deep and light blue, white and red ; the flesh tints
are in pink enamel. There is a Latin inscription.1 (MS. No. 35.)

The four examples given above are all on gold ; cloisonne" enamels were also
executed upon copper.

5. M. Labarte describes a small book-cover plaque 7\ by 6\ inches, in the
collection of the Comte de Pourtales-Gorgier. Upon it is represented St. George
standing armed with a lance, with which he is transfixing a dragon at his feet. Several
inscriptions in Greek characters are inscribed on the ground. The flesh tints are of a
tolerably natural colour ; the enamels used in the draperies and accessories are of various
colours. The enamel is framed in a border of hammered copper. The plaque is
Byzantine of the ninth or tenth century.2

6. In the British Museum may be seen several fine enamel book-covers. Two in the
Mediaeval Department are deserving of notice. The first is a German enamel of the
twelfth century. In the centre is an oblong panel with a representation of St. James ;
round this is a golden border ornamented with jewels ; the outer border, which is raised
about I inch above the central panel, is formed of four enamelled strips. The accom-
panying illustration shows how the enamel was usually applied to book-covers in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

7. In the same case there is a composite book-cover, a good example of a mediaeval
" make up." The central panel consists of a piece of German enamel probably of
thirteenth-century workmanship. In the fourteenth century it appears to have been
remounted and surrounded with ornaments of that period. This cover was bequeathed
by Felix Slade to the Museum in 1868.

8. This example, in the Department of Manuscripts, British Museum, perhaps
deserves more consideration as a piece of goldsmith's work than on account of the
enamels with which it has been ornamented, but these are nevertheless of considerable
merit. It is the cover of a manuscript of the four Gospels, in Latin, probably written in
North-west Germany late in the tenth century, and bound in thick wooden boards
covered with leather. In the upper cover is a sunken panel, which, together with the
surrounding frame, is overlaid with copper-gilt ; the frame is studded with large
crystals. The metal in the panel has a scale pattern repousse^ the sunk edges being-
covered with small leaves, etc. In the centre is a seated figure of Christ, in high relief,
the eyes formed by two beads ; and at the four corners are small squares of cliamplevc
enamel, in blue, green, and red, added not earlier than the fourteenth century. This
manuscript was purchased for the Museum in 1857. (Additional MS. 21, 921.)

It has been very justly remarked that few of the covers of ancient manuscripts are
1 M. Labarte, " Handbook," p. 113. ■ Ibid., p. 117.

3§

BOOK-COVER OF GOLD AND ENAMEL ADORNED WITH GEMS.

GERMAN, I2TH CENTURY.

(From the original in the Nediceval Department of the British Museum.)

GOLDSMITHS' WORK AND ENAMEL.

73

contemporary with the books themselves ; and when these covers aspire to the distinction
of works of art formed of costly materials, it is often difficult to fix their date with
certainty, because they are frequently found to have received additions at different dates.1
The tablets of Shamplevi enamel at the four corners of this example are fourteenth-
century work, and form no part of the original design. Perhaps there were also two
other enamels at the sides, but these have now gone, leaving only the holes made by
the pins which fastened them to the cover.

9. This example, also in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum,
covers the Gospels of SS. Luke and John, in Latin, written in Germany in the
thirteenth century, and formerly belonging to the Nunnery of Heiningen in the diocese
of Hildesheim. It was presented to the Museum 'by the executors of Felix Slade in
1868. The volume is bound in thick wooden boards, covered with leather stained red.
The lower cover is plain. The upper cover is half the thickness of the book and
exceedingly heavy. In it is a sunken panel of Limoges enamel on copper-gilt, of the
end of the thirteenth century : Christ in glory, within a vesica, with the symbols of the
Evangelists at the corners, the figures gilt with the heads in relief. Plates of enamel,
of leaf-and-flower pattern, are attached to the outer frame. The colours used are shades
of blue, light green, yellow, white, and red. The bevelled sides of the border are
covered with copper-gilt, worked in diamond pattern.2 (Additional MS. 27, 926.)

1 H. B. Wheatley, F.S.A., " Remarkable Bindings in the British Museum."
- Ibid. See Plate II., p. 4.

ANCIENT IRISH BOOK-COVER, BRONZE.

(From the original in the British Museum.)

CHAPTER VII.

CELTIC BOOKBINDING-IRISH BOOK-SATCHELS— BOOK-SHRINES— METAL
BINDINGS AND ORNAMENTAL LEATHER BOOKBINDINGS.

N Western Europe culture advanced side by side with Christianity.
The footsteps of the first missionaries, marked by monuments of art
and literature, the work of these pioneers of a new religion, may
be traced from Southern Europe to their final home in Britain.
Many manuscripts exquisitely illuminated, shrines, in wrought metal,
for bells or books, chalices, personal ornaments, and book-covers
remain to this day in attestation of the high artistic feeling, patience,
and well-directed energy of our first Christian missionaries. In the early days, before
the English tribes came to Britain, Christianity had spread through Western Europe,
from Rome through Gaul and Spain to the Isles of the Sea, to Britian, and to Ireland.
The conquest of this country by the pagan tribesmen divided Christendom into two
unequal portions. On one side were the Romanised churches of the Continent, on
the other the independent Celtic Church ; in the former all energy was expended in the
struggle for existence, in the latter the strength of the youthful sect made itself felt in
the schools and monasteries, leaving its record in the excellence — the absolute goodness
and perfection — of its written and illuminated books. " The science and Biblical know-
ledge," wrote the historian of the English people, " which fled from the Continent took
refuge in famous schools, which made Durrow and Armagh the Universities of the
West." x The learning expelled from Alexandria and Constantinople found a home among
the warm-hearted Irish people. It is recorded that St. Patrick had among his family,
or religious associates, artificers of great skill (c. A.D. 440). Some of these artificers
combined the mission of evangelist with the calling of art workman ; they had followed
Patrick from the Continent, and they and their successors were contemporaries of
the artists who fashioned the throne of Dagobert, the ivory chair of Maximian at
Ravenna, and the treasures of the Cathedral of Monza. Bishop Conla, one of these

1 J. R. Green, " A Short History of the English People," p. 43.
74

CELTIC BOOKBINDING. 75

early missionaries, is said to have been an artist in gold, silver, and other metals. His
vestments were of foreign, probably Italian make ; which fact points to a connection
between that country and our own at that early date.

St. Patrick's immediate successors attacked with fiery zeal the heathenism around
them. Missionaries set out to convert the people of Gaul and Italy. In the plains of
Burgundy, among the lofty Apennines, or beside the blue waters of Lake Constance
rose monasteries and churches founded by Irishmen. It would appear that the
wandering saints, who founded these institutions, brought with them manuscripts and
holy vessels of native workmanship ; it is from these relics of an almost forgotten
race that we are able to discover something of the nature and characteristics of the art
prevailing at that early period in our own and our sister-island. There are of course the
well-known examples of Irish art still preserved in that island, but similar examples
have been found on the Continent ; of these may be instanced the chalice of Tassilo, at
the Monastery of Reichenau on an island of the Lake of Constance. This chalice
certainly dates from the eighth century, since Tassilo was deposed A.D. 788. The under
cover of the Gospel book of the neighbouring Monastery of Lindau (see pp. 82) dates
from a period quite as early.

It is thought by archaeologists who have made Irish history a special study
that the teachers and scribes who migrated from Ireland to the Continent were in
fact returning to the countries whence their masters had originally come. Numerous
Irish manuscripts and other relics, of the eighth to the tenth century, preserved in
European libraries and treasuries, afford evidence of the truth of the foreign chronicles,
which alone record the labours of the Irish teachers. Celtic enthusiasm was, how-
ever, shortlived ; it flourished for a time like the wild exuberance of its interlaced
ornament, but it declined before the more enduring influence of Rome ; its art fell
with the masters who practised it, but not before it had left a characteristic mark
upon the holy vessels and great books of the Carolingian school.

The equipment of a Celtic scribe consisted of a pair of tablets, covered with wax,
a stylus for writing on the wax, pens made of feathers, ink of various colours, and
parchment. So honourable was the profession esteemed that the title of scribe was
frequently used to enhance the dignity of a bishop. Irish monks instructed their
disciples in all the technicalities of writing, illuminating, and bookbinding ; and to
their careful system of instruction is due the exquisite beauty of Irish manuscripts
and their coverings. One of the earliest references to books in Celtic Christian
times is contained in an account of St. Patrick's first coming to Ireland. He and
his followers carried in their hands long wooden tablets "written after the manner
of Moses." The ignorant natives, mistaking these tablets for swords, fought the peaceful
Christians till the error was discovered ; so runs the legend.1

BOOK-SATCHELS. — Irish scribes were accustomed to bind their books in rough
leather or in wooden boards without much ornament, so far as can now be ascertained ;
1 See Todd's " St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," p. 509, N. A.

76 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

but when a volume was intended for a man in great repute, or had belonged to
a saint, no ornament was too elaborate to be lavished upon it. When books were
bound they were placed in leather cases or satchels furnished with straps for hanging
over the shoulder or upon a peg. Examples may still be seen enclosing the volumes
they were made to protect, for the satchel of the Book of Armagh, that of St.
Moedoc's Reliquary, and that of the Irish Missal at Corpus Christi College, Oxford,
yet remain.1 The Oxford example is a rough leather case bearing marks of great
antiquity ; it contains a small missal, about 6 inches in length by 5 in width. The
missal is bound in strong wooden covers without ornament, but upon the sides of
the satchel may still be seen impressed upon the leather a pattern consisting chiefly
of intersecting lines and circles produced by means of a blunt point and a
punch.

It appears to have been the usage of Irish ecclesiastics to keep books in satchels
of this kind, which were called polaire or tiaglia lebur, and by this means to carry
them from place to place when going journeys. The custom is mentioned in old Gaelic
tales, and incidentally also by Gerald de Barri2 in his account of an interview, said
to have occurred about A.D. 11 82, between an Ulster priest and a man-wolf and his
dying female companion, in a wood on the borders of Meath. The wolf said he was
a man of Ossory, on whose family lay an ancient curse, whereby every seven years a
man and a woman were changed into wolves, resuming their natural form at the expira-
tion of seven years. The she-wolf, so runs the story, desired the last consolation of
religion, and the man-wolf, pointing to a scrip {pernio) containing a missal and some
consecrated elements, which, in accordance with ancient usage, wandering priests were
accustomed to carry suspended round their necks, intimated that his dying partner's
wishes were to be respected.

It is recorded that among the presents given by St. Patrick to Fiace, Bishop of
Sletty, were a bell and reliquary, a croizier and a book-satchel. A satchel, indeed, was
a necessary article of episcopal equipment, when a bishop had to trudge on foot over
a large and uncultivated diocese. St. Patrick is described as carrying his book-
satchel on his back. St. Columba is said to have blessed " one hundred polaires,
noble and rare," 3 and to have made crosses, book-satchels, and other ecclesiastical
gear.

The custom of using book-satchels was brought from Gaul to Ireland ; it had
probably passed from the East to Gaul, and in modern times it was still practised in the
monasteries of Egypt and the Levant. Curzon, who travelled early in the nineteenth
century, noticed that books in the library of the Abyssinian Monastery of Sourians, on the
Matron Lakes in Egypt, were bound in the usual way, either in red leather or in wooden

1 M. Stokes, "Early Christian Art in Ireland," p. 50, where the satchel is stated erroneously to
be at Cambridge.

8 See also T. J. Gilbert, "Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of Ireland," Part II., Intro,
p. xxiv, plate 51 ; also MS. Roy. 13 B., British Museum.

3 "Leabhar Brese," fol. 16 — 60.

CASE OF MOLAISE'S GOSPELS (UPPER SIDE) IRISH WORK.

EARLY I ITH CENTURY.
(Photographed from the original in the Altiseuvi of the Royal Irish Academy.)

BOOK-SATCHELS.

77

boards, which were occasionally elaborately carved in rude and coarse devices. The
books were enclosed in cases tied up with leather thongs, and attached to a strap for
convenience in carrying the volumes over the shoulders ; by these straps books were
also hung on wooden pegs, three or four on a peg. The usual size was that of a small
very thick quarto. In this respect the Abyssinian books resemble the ancient Irish
manuscripts.1

Book-satchels probably ceased to be generally used in this country before the
eleventh century, but they have been in use occasionally from the earliest times
to the present day. Every one is familiar with carvings and pictures of monks
and ecclesiastics carrying their books suspended by a strap from the girdle.
In our days the dainty morocco satchels, enclosing bijou editions of the Book of
Common Prayer and Hymns, are, in fact, representatives of the ancient Celtic
pol aires.

We have heard of a Staffordshire vicar, lately dead, who when travelling in
Palestine was attacked by brigands. Seizing the Bible, which he carried in a satchel
suspended from his neck by its leather strap, the worthy divine used the sacred
volume as a weapon of defence so effectually that he kept the Arabs at bay till his
friends came up and rescued him.

Although out of strict chronological order it may be well here to add a few words
upon book-satchels in general. In Italy and Germany in mediaeval times book-satchels
of cuirbouilli, and occasionally of metal, were in fashion. The cuirbouilli was beauti-
fully ornamented with cut designs. These designs consisted, for the most part, of
conventional foliage, heraldic achievements, and inscriptions. A fine example may be
seen at the British Museum. It is described as an oblong breviary case in cuirbouilli,
Italian leather work of the fifteenth century, with loops at the edges for straps. Two
sides bear the coat-of-arms and crest of the Aldobrandini family, a bend embattled ;
with their crest, a female head. At each corner is the representation of a padlock.
The background is covered with a diaper of leaves and flowers, cut and punched in an
exceedingly beautiful manner. This case was bequeathed to the Museum by Felix
Slade in 1868. It was exhibited at an art exhibition held at Ironmongers' Hall, and is
fully described in the catalogue then published.

In the same room at the Museum is another, but smaller, cuirbouilli case, or forel,
for a book. It is smaller in size and less elaborately ornamented than the Aldobrandini
forel. It is Italian work of the sixteenth century. Similar ancient book-cases may
be found among the treasures of many ancient libraries and museums. At the Bodleian
Library, Oxford, there is one still containing the book for which it was originally made.
This is a beautifully illuminated chart-book of fifteenth-century date, bound in cedar-
wood inlaid with ivory and coloured woods. To protect this chart from injury it was
placed in a strong case of black cuirbouilli wrought on the sides with very beautiful
conventional leaf ornament. Cuirbouilli work is now a lost art ; it might be revived
with advantage.

1 Curzon, ".Monasteries of the Levant,'' p. 93.

78 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

BOOK-SHRINES. — Besides book-satchels there were in early Christian times
magnificent book-shrines, comparatively common in Ireland.1 In other countries
the bindings themselves were more frequently embellished with gold, silver, enamel,
and jewels, so that the books might add splendour to the altars upon which they were
placed ; but in Ireland books, being in many cases the handiwork of the patron saint
of a church, or at least his gift, were venerated by his successors as things to be
preserved inviolate even to the cover. For the preservation of books boxes were
made, and upon them all the skill of the goldsmith was lavished. Certain families were
the hereditary guardians of these sacred books and their shrines. In course of time
the heirlooms were put to a very different use from that for which they were originally
designed, being used sometimes as a talisman in battle, and in one instance worn
as a breastplate. One case, that called the Cathach, was hermetically sealed.

The earliest cumdach, or book-shrine, recorded is that made for the Book of
Durrow by Flann Sinna, King of Ireland, circa 877. This is now lost, but it was seen in
1677. The next book-shrine is that of the Book of Armagh, dating from circa A.D. 937.

In the "Annals of Four Masters" we read that the shrine of the Book of
Kells was stolen A.D. 1006: "This was the principal relic of the Western world, on
account of its singular cover ; and it was found after twenty nights and two months,
its gold having been stolen off it, and a sod over it." The writer of " Early
Christian Art in Ireland" gives a list of the cwndaclis dating from A.D. 877 to A.D. 1534.

The shrines vary from 9^ to . 5J inches in length, and are made of various
materials, — gold, silver, bronze, and wood. In those examples which are still extant
that of Molaise is of bronze, plated with silver ; those of the Cathach and Dimma's
book brass, plated with silver ; that of Domnach Airgid is of yew- wood.

Book-shrines of Byzantine workmanship are still preserved at some ancient
churches on the Continent. That of the Gospels at Monza has been already mentioned
(p. 67). There are also other shrines in the same church. Examples of Irish cumdachs
may be seen in the royal library of Munich, and elsewhere on the Continent.

The case of Molaise's Gospels, circa A.D. 1001, is formed of bronze plates orna-
mented with silver, and with gilt patterns, riveted to the bronze foundation. Like all
cases and book-covers of this class, a cross forms the basis of the design. Between
the arms of the cross the four sacred beasts are placed, and the names of these symbolic
creatures are engraved beside them. The remaining spaces are filled with gilt cable
patterns, and in the centre of the cross and at the four corners are stones cut en cabochon.
The under side is plainer, but, as may be seen by the illustration, the design is effective.

Next in date comes the shrine of the Stowe Missal, the older part of which seems
to have been made between the years 1025 and 1052. In the centre is a large rosette
of metal containing a crystal, from which spring the arms of a cross, terminating
in a border engraved with an inscription, and an interlaced ornament at the four
corners. The semicircles at -the end of the arms of the cross are also decorated

1 M. Stokes, " Early Christian Art in Ireland," pp. 88 — 96, contains the most comprehensive
account of Irish book-shrines,

THE CASE OF MOLAISE's GOSPELS (UNDER SIDE), IRISH WORK, EARLY ELEVENTH CENTURY.

( Photographed from the original in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.)

80 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

with interlaced work. The inscription implores the pious to pray for the soul of
a certain early Irish king, and for Dunchad, descendant of Taccan, of the family
of Cluain, who made the box ; he was a monk of Clonmacnois and a silversmith,
but nothing more is known about him. The spaces between the arms of the cross
are filled with plates of engraved silver. The crystal and its setting in the centre
are later additions. The upper side of the box is divided into four com-
partments, covered with silver engraved to represent the Crucifixion, the Blessed
Virgin, a saint, and a bishop, and is of much later workmanship. As to the
history of this famous book and its covering, it is held to have belonged originally
to the Monastery of Lorrha, in Tipperary, whence it may have been carried to
the Irish Monastery of Ratisbon. It was found in Austria by Mr. John Grace,
an officer in the Austrian service, in the year 1784. From the family of Mr. Grace
it was obtained by Dr. O'Conor for the Duke of Buckingham's library at Stowe,
whence it passed into the possession of the Earl of Ashburnham, and is now
deposited in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.

The shrine of Dimma's book, though simple in construction, is one of the most
curious cumdachs now extant ; its history is romantic. The shrine was made to contain
a copy of the Gospels written by one Dimma, a scribe, who was employed by St.
Cronan in the year A.D. 634, to write a copy of the Gospels. The book belonged
to the Abbey of Roscrea, founded by Cronan. In the middle of the twelfth century
by order of Tatheus O'Carroll, an Irish chieftain, it was enshrined in its present
covering. At the time of the dissolution of monasteries both shrine and book dis-
appeared. They were found in the year 1789 by some boys, who were rabbit-hunting,
among the rocks of the Devil's Bit Mountain in the county of Tipperary. The boys
upon discovering this treasure tore off the silver plate and picked out some of the lapis-
lazidi with which it was studded, but they feared to touch the side of the shrine on
which they found the representation of the Passion. After passing through several
hands it at last reached its present resting-place in the library of Trinity College,
Dublin. One side of the case is divided into four compartments by a cross of plain silver,
ornamented with jewels in the centre and at the four extremities, and joining a plain
silver border, also ornamented with jewels at the four corners. The spaces between
the arms of the cross are filled with interlaced designs of curious animals. The date
of this shrine is A.D. 1 1 50.

The last shrine which can be mentioned here is the large case made to contain the
Cathach of the O'Donnells, a copy of the Psalter, so called because it was carried into
battle by the army of Cenel Conaill, " hung on the breast of a hereditary lay successor
of a priest without mortal sin (so far as he could help)."1 The inscription on the box
runs as follows : " A prayer for Cathbarr Ua-Domnaill, for whom this case was made ;
for Sitric, son of Mac-Aeda, who made it ; for Domnall, son of Robartach ; for the
successor of Kells, for whom it was made." There is reason for assigning a date not
later than A.D. 1084 to this book and shrine.

1 O'Donnell's " Life of St. Columba," quoted by M. Stokes, " Early Christian Art in Ireland," p. 96.

CASE OF THE STOWE MISSAL (UNDER SIDE), IRISH WORK, EARLY ELEVENTH CENTURY, C. A.D. 1023.
THE CENTRE ORNAMENT SEEMS TO BE A LATER ADDITION.

{Photograplicd from the original in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy.)

!2 A HISTORY OF THE AR7 OF BOOKBINDING.

Book-shrines were not peculiar to Ireland. Under the name of capsa they are
frequently mentioned in ancient inventories. Gregory of Tours relates l that Childebert
in A.D. 531 brought from Barcelona twenty evangelioram capscz of pure gold set with
stones. In the Louvre is a box overlaid with plates of gold ; the Crucifixion, in ham-
mered work, occupies the upper panel. This subject, placed under a semicircular arch
supported by columns, is surrounded by a wide border containing fine cloisonne enamels.
The symbols of the four Evangelists are placed at the corners, the remaining space
of the border, being ornamented with enamels alternating with stones cut en cabochon.
The style indicates that it was fashioned at the beginning of the eleventh century.

The case of gold given by Queen Theodolinda to the Church of Monza in the sixth
century, and still preserved there, is a book-shrine not unlike the Irish examples above
described, but differing in detail. The ornamentation of the Monza capsa may be
described as " a cross patee, marked out by a granulated border, and decorated with
lines formed by slices of garnets";2 and in this respect it resembles the ornament
upon the under cover of the Lindau Gospels, which we next describe.

The most famous early Celtic bookbinding now in this country may be seen upon
the under side of the cover of the Gospels of Lindau, the upper side of which was de-
scribed on page 67. This manuscript, which belonged to the Abbey of Noble Canonesses,
founded in A.D. 834 by the Emperor Lewis the Pious at Lindau, on the Lake of
Constance, fell to the share of the Canoness Antoinette, Baroness von Euzburg, when
the abbey was dissolved in 1803 ; after her death it was purchased by Baron Joseph de
Lapsburg, who sold it to Mr. Boone, a bookseller, from whom it was bought by the late
Earl of Ashburnham, in whose collection it still remains.

Mr. Nesbitt describes this wonderful binding at great length in "Vetusta Monu-
menta," published by the Society of Antiquaries. The older side of the cover he
considers " an unique combination of artistic processes in use in Ireland and in Germany,
or in Italy in the eighth century. The other the finest example of art of the Carolingian
period." The design of the under side, undoubtedly, is Celtic, but the execution may
have been German of the eighth century. In its original state the older side of this
textus of Lindau measured 13J by of inches. Strips of gilt metal have been added on
the sides ; one in place of the original border of enamel, the other as an addition to
the border, which, however, is now wanting at the bottom. The total width of the
cover is now iof inches. A cross patee occupies the centre of the panel, and upon it
are ornaments of garnets and enamel. The spaces between the arms of the cross are
occupied, except the quadrants at the exterior angles, by chiselled work of interlaced
animals in bronze. The outer border, judging from what is left, consisted of
small tablets of cloisonne enamel very rudely executed, the colours being white, light
blue and red, on a blue ground, with spots of orange. Between each enamel was
a square ornament composed of flat slices of garnets formed into patterns by fillets
of metal. These ornaments vary, and each alternate space has in its centre a small

1 " Hist. Ecc. Franc," lib. iii., c. 10.

2 A. Nesbitt, FS. A., " Memoir on ' Evangelia Quatuor' of Lindau," "Vetusta Monumenta," 1885.

CASE OF THE STOWE MISSAL (UPPER SIDE.)
{Photographed from the original in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.)

ORNAMENTAL LEATHER BOOKBINDINGS. 83

hemisphere of uncoloured glass, in one case an emerald. Figure of the Evan-
gelists at the four corners are late additions, dating probably from 1594, when the
book was rebound. The pieces of which this cover is composed are fixed by pins to
a board \ inch thick. The enamels are of two kinds — cloisonne and champleve '; the
ornaments are entirely of the zoomorphic kind. The older or spiral system of
decoration is entirely wanting. Garnet work went out of fashion about A.D. 800, but
is often found on objects of Anglo-Saxon and Gaulish workmanship.

Although but few examples of Celtic bookbinding are now extant, there can be no
doubt that binders of those days knew how to cover books substantially with wood,
metal, or leather adorned in various ways. It has been stated that the early Irish
bindings were usually plain, and that ornamental additions were generally confined
to the boxes or cases made to contain books. To this rule, however, there are notable
exceptions. Irish bindings quite as elaborately ornamented as any book-shrine are
extant. In design and plan the decoration closely resembles that upon the sides of
book-shrines. Our Celtic forefathers also knew how to ornament leather. The
beautiful designs upon some of the leather satchels have counterparts upon the sides
of ancient leather bindings.

The names of a few Celtic bookbinders are known. Dagzeus, a monk living in
Ireland early in the sixth century, is said to have been a skilful caligraphist, and to have
made and ornamented bindings with gold, silver, and precious stones ; he died A.D. 587.
Ethelwolf, a monk of Lindisfarn, in a metrical epistle to Bishop Egbert, at that time
(ninth century) resident in Ireland, with a view of collecting manuscripts, extols one
Ultan, an Irish monk, for his talents in adorning books.1

Scattered in different parts of the country, and especially in Irish museums, are
numerous fragments of Celtic bookbindings, some of great beauty, some merely
grotesque. Among these fragments may be found engraved metal plates once
forming the ornamental covers of books ; corner-pieces, probably, used to adorn and
protect the corners of wooden bindings covered with leather. Such are the fragments
found at Clonmacnois and in Phcenix Park, Dublin, and now in the British Museum.
Clasps were used even in those days, and much good taste was displayed in ornamenting
them.

It would be strange if in our own island we could find no relics of the art workman-
ship of the Irish missionaries ; probably there are some hidden away in ancient churches
or country houses, but very few have been discovered. Patrick, the apostle of
Ireland, had been dead half a century when his followers set out to Christianise other
nations. Columba, a man of royal descent, born in the north-west of Ireland about
A.D. 520, left his native country in his forty-second year, and crossed in a little boat to
the island off the coast of Scotland, subsequently renowned as Iona. Columba and his
successors brought with them books and book-shrines, but no example of the latter is
at present known to us ; they are, however, noticed in ancient records. Thus, in the
" Aberdeen Martyrology," the Gospel of St. Matthew belonging to St. Ternan is
1 O'Conor's " Rerum H'bernicarum," clxxvii.

84 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

described as enclosed in a metal case, covered with silver and gold ; and it is said in
Bower's continuation of Fordun that the Gospels of St. Andrews were covered by
Bishop Fothad before A.D. 960.1

Towards the close of the seventh century, Benedict Biscop, founder of the
Monastery of Wearmouth, in Northumberland, made no fewer then five journeys to
Rome to purchase books, vessels, vestments, and other ornaments for his monastery,
and thus collected a valuable library. For one of these books, a volume on Cosmo-
graphy, King Alfred gave him an estate of eight hides, or as much land as eight ploughs
could cultivate. The bargain was concluded by Benedict with the king a little before
his death, A.D. 690 ; and the book was delivered, and the estate received by his successor,
Abbot Coelfred. An old writer (Dr. Henry) commenting on this remarks : " At this
rate none but kings, bishops, and abbots could be possessed of books ; which is
the reason that there were then no schools but in kings' palaces, bishops' sees, or
monasteries."

Two Irish missals are extant in Scotland — one called the " Drummond Missal," from
its having been preserved at Drummond Castle in Perthshire ; the other, now at
Edinburgh, and formerly attributed erroneously to St. Columban, is now more
appropriately designated the " Rosslyn Missal," from its having been for some time in
the possession of the Sinclairs of Rosslyn.2

The most notable leather binding of this early period is that upon the little volume
containing the Gospel of St. John, taken from the tomb of St. Cuthbert at Durham. The
sides of this binding measure 5 J by 3I inches ; they are thin wooden boards covered with
dark crimson leather, with interlaced ornaments coloured yellow. The obverse contains
a panel 2 inches square, the surface of which is slightly depressed ; upon it is a twining
branch ornament slightly raised. Above and below are panels with an interlaced cable
design in intaglio, the whole being surrounded by a border of undulating cable pattern.
Upon the reverse a panel, measuring 3 by if inches, surrounded by a double-ruled
border, is divided into two hundred and ten squares by depressed lines, some of which
have been painted yellow. The colour having worn away considerably, it is now
impossible to tell what the original design may have been.

St. Cuthbert, it may be remembered, died on the island of Fame in the year
A.D. 687. He was buried at Lindisfarn, and eleven years later his body was translated
to Durham. In the reign of Henry I. Cuthbert's tomb was again opened ; his body, it
is said, was not decomposed, the limbs were flexible, and the vestments entire. In the
coffin were found a gold chalice with an onyx foot ; the head of Oswald, King of the
Northumbrians, who lost his life fighting against the Danes ; and, as it is supposed,
this small volume containing the Gospel of St. John, in which Cuthbert used constantly
to read. The text is written in uncials, and there is no doubt as to its antiquity.
At the beginning of the book is the following inscription in a later, probably thirteenth-
century hand : " Ezvangelium Johannis quod inventum feverat ad caput Beati Patris

1 M. Stokes, " Early Christian Art in Ireland," p. 96.

2 John T. Gilbert, F.S.A., "Facsimiles of the National Manuscripts of Ireland," 1878.

ORNAMENTAL LEATHER BOOKBINDINGS.

85

nostri Cuthberti, in sepulcliro j'acens anno translationis ipshis." (" The Gospel of John,
which was found at the head of our Blessed Father Cuthbert, lying in his tomb, in the
year of his translation.") The vellum fly-leaves may have been added at a later date.

From that time till the
dissolution of monasteries
the book is supposed to
have been kept in the trea-
sury at Durham ; after-
wards it fell into private
hands, and at length became
the property of the family
of Lees, afterwards Earls
of Lichfield, in the time of
Charles II. The Earl of
Lichfield gave the book to
the Rev. Thomas Philips,
author of a " Life of Cardinal
Pole," who gave it to the
College of Jesuits at Liege,
in 1769.1 After the sup-
pression of the order one
of the fathers brought the
volume to England, and it
is now carefully preserved
at Stonyhurst College.

Many years ago the
Rev. J. Milner, F.S.A., ex-
hibited this book to the
Society of Antiquaries ; he
then supposed that the bind-
ing was of Elizabethan date,
but there is little doubt that
this was an error.2 The bind-
ing cannot be much later
than the tenth century ; it
may be contemporary with
the manuscript, which is
considerably older.3

1 ArchcBologia, vol. xvi., p. 17 ; " Transactions of the Oxford Philological Society," October
31st, 1879.

2 Mr. E. Gordon Duff, " Burlington Fine Art Club. Catalogue of Bookbindings," Introduction, p. vi.

3 For a rubbing of this most interesting binding and for information concerning it the editor
desires to express his thanks to the Rev. George Jinks, of Stonyhurst College, Blackburn.

W. j. n . iuA. .

LEATHER BINDING OF ST. CUTHBERTS GOSPELS.

{Diagram from the original at Stonyhurst College.)

CHAPTER VIII.

MONASTIC BOOKBINDING— ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL BOOKBINDING UP TO
THE INVENTION OF PRINTING.

S monasticism became more firmly established in England after the
Norman Conquest, and one after another great monasteries arose in
the fairest and most fruitful spots throughout the land, the rule of
St. Benedict and other similar systems began to exercise a decided
influence on literature. On the Continent the expansion of monas-
ticism took place at an earlier period than in England, but the result
was much the same. The Benedictine monk was the pioneer of
mediaeval civilisation and Christianity in England, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Sweden,
and Denmark.1 The Benedictines founded seminaries in France, and filled the pro-
fessorial chairs in the universities of Christendom. With the din of arms around
him, it was the monk in his cloister who, by preserving and transcribing ancient
manuscripts, both Christian and pagan, as well as by recording his observations
on contemporary events, was handing down the torch of knowledge unquenched to
future generations.2

In every great English abbey a room called a scriptorium was appropriated to the
scribes, who were constantly employed in transcribing, not only service-books for the
choir, but books for the library also, and in binding them. The library, however, did not
become an important part of the monastic buildings till towards the fourteenth century.
The libraries founded at York by Alcuin in the eighth century, at Durham, Canterbury,
Lincoln, and Worcester, were not large ; old catalogues of some of these collections are

1 Mabillon, " De Stud. Mon.," I. ix.

- J. G. Smith, "Christian Monasticism," p. 12.

MONASTIC BOOKBINDING.

87

extant. At Lincoln, a typical example, there is a catalogue of the cathedral library,
dated 1150; but the "new library," a room built about 1420, was but a small apartment
though larger, probably, than the one it superseded.

In Benedictine monasteries one or more walks of the cloisters were generally
occupied by the wooden carrols, or little studies, wherein the monks could retire for
purposes of reading or transcribing books. At Winchester, Chester, and Gloucester
the south cloister was occupied by carrols ; at Durham the north side. At Worcester
and Beaulieu large aumbries, or cupboards, for books were situated in recesses in the wall
of the east cloister ; the bookbinders' workroom was not in the cloister, but in another
part of the conventual buildings.

A MONK TRANSCRIBING A BOOK.

This one good use of convents and of Christian societies was, as we have
already seen, of early origin. About the year 220 Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem,
built there a library for the preservation of the epistles of the learned. And
Origen was assisted in the production of his works by several notaries, who
wrote down in turn that which he uttered.1 In more recent times Herman, one of
the Norman bishops of Salisbury, about the year 1080, not only wrote and illuminated
books, but also bound them.2 Some of the classics were written and bound in "English
monasteries. Henry, a Benedictine monk of Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, transcribed,

1 " Eccl. Hist, of Eusebius Pamphilus," Book VI., chap. xx.

2 " Mon. Angl.," iii. 275.

88 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

in the year 1 1 78, Terence, Boetius, Suetonius, and Claudian ; he bound the copies in
one book, and formed the brazen bosses of the covers with his own hands.1

In the year 11 74 Walter, Prior of St. Swithin's, Winchester, purchased of the monks
of Dorchester, in Oxfordshire, the Homilies of Bede and St. Augustine's Psalter for
twelve measures of barley, and a pall, on which was embroidered, in silver, the history
of St. Birinus converting a Saxon king.

At Worcester the monastic records were generally bound in white sheep-skin.
In a monastic roll of the time of Richard II. is this entry : —

" In iij pellib's omnis p. bibliis in claustro, iiijd." (" Three skins for books in the
cloister, 4^.") ; and

" It suttetori pro ligatura magni libri in choro xxd." (" To the binder for binding
the great book in the choir, 20d.").-

In one instance the binding of a Worcester book was fastened with a letter-lock, so
that it could be opened only by some one who knew the secret of the combination.

From these entries it is evident that the Worcester monks employed a professional
binder, as did those of Winchester and other great monasteries ; but it must not be
supposed that the monks of those monasteries did not themselves sometimes follow
that commendable calling.

For the support of the scriptorium estates were often granted. That at St.
Edmondsbury was endowed with two mills. The tithes of a rectory were appropriated
to the Cathedral Convent of St. Swithin, at Winchester, in the year 1171. Many
similar instances occur. About the year 790 Charlemagne granted an unlimited
right of hunting to the abbot and monks of Sithin, for making their gloves and
girdles of the skins of the deer they killed, and covers for their books. Nigel, in
the year 1160, gave the monks of Ely two churches, ad libros faciendos. R. de Paston
granted to Bromholm Abbey, in Norfolk, \2d. per annum, a rent charge on his lands,
to keep their books in repair. These employments appear to have been diligently
practised at Croyland, if we may accept the evidence of an authority so doubtful as
Ingulphus, who relates that when the abbey was burnt in the year 1091 seven hundred
volumes were consumed. Large sums were disbursed for grails, legends, and service-
books for the choir of the chapel of Winchester College, as is shown by a roll
of John Morys, the warden, anno xx. Richard II. A.D. 1397. It appears, in this
case, that they bought the parchment, and hired persons to do the writing,
illuminating, noting, and binding within the walls of the college. The books were
covered with deer-skin. " Item in vj pellibus cervinis emptis pro libris predictis
cooperiendis, xiijs. iiijd." (" Also expended upon six deer-skins for covering the books
aforesaid, 13J. 4d."). The monks, as has been before remarked, were skilful illuminators.
They were also taught to bind books. In the year 1277 these constitutions were
given to the Benedictine monasteries of the province of Canterbury : " TJie abbots may
allow their cloistered monks, in place of manual labour, according to their ability in other

1 Warton, I. cxliv., dis. 2.

- J. Noake, " The Monastery and Cathedral of Worcester," p. 445.

MONASTIC BOOKBINDING. 89

occupations, to employ themselves in studying, in writing, in correcting, in illuminating,
and in binding books." That the students and monks were bookbinders is further con-
firmed by a note on the fly-leaf of a manuscript at Lincoln : " Master Thomas Duffield
sometime Cancellarius of tlie Cathedral Church of Lincoln, bound and gave this book to the
New Library, A.D. 1422" ; also by a note in a Burton book, the first page of a manu-
script " Life of Concubramis." It is written in monkish Latin, and although of late
date may be quoted here : " The binding of Sir William Edys, monk of the Monastery
of the Blessed Mary and of St. Modwena the Virgin, Burton-on- Trent, while he was
studying at Oxford, A.D. 1517."1

Haymo de Heth, in the original endowment of Chalk, in Kent, in 1327, compelled
the vicars to be at the expense of binding their missals, " libros etiam ligari faciet." 2

Until the invention of printing the writing and binding of books was largely, but
not exclusively, practised by monks. In one of Abbot John Tritheimius' exhortations
to his monks of Spanheim in the year i486, after many injunctions against idleness,
he observes that he has diminished their labour out of the monastery, lest by working
badly they should only add to their sins, and had enjoined on them the manual labour
of writing and binding books. Again urging them to attend to this duty, he says :
" It is true that the industry of the printing art, lately, in our day, discovered at Mentz,
produces many volumes every day ; but it is impossible for us, depressed as we are
by poverty, to buy them all." 3

Books being scarce and valuable till the invention of printing, and being usually
made of parchment instead of paper, caused people to be more careful for their
preservation than they are at present ; but unfortunately that which appeared likely
to protect them for ages often proved their destruction. The covers of wood
facilitated the ravages of worms ; the edges, too, got damaged, and the books suffered
considerably.

An early instance of an English monk labouring to adorn the binding of a book
is that of one Bilfrid, a monk of Durham (c. A.D. 720), who is mentioned in Simon of
Durham's " Ecclesiastical History " * in connection with a book usually known by the
name of " Textus Sanctus Cuthberti," preserved in the British Museum. (MS. Cotton,
Nero D. iv.) It is a fine specimen of Saxon caligraphy and decoration of the seventh or
eighth century, and was written by Eadfrid, Bishop of Durham ; and Ethelwold, his
successor, executed the illuminations, the capitals, and other illustrations with infinite
labour and elegance. Bilfrid covered the book, and adorned it with gold and silver
plates set with precious stones. These particulars are related by Aldred, the Saxon
glossator, at the end of St. John's Gospel. Simon of Durham, or Turgot, tells us that
the cover was ornamented : " with precious gems and gold." Many curious tales are
related concerning this book ; amongst others, Turgot gravely asserts, that when the
monks of Lindisfarn were removing thence, to avoid the depredations of the Danes,
the vessel wherein they were embarked oversetting, this book, which they had with

' Warton, I. cxlvi., dis. 2. - Archceologia, vol. xi., p. 362. 3 British Mag., x. 128.

4 Warton, " English Poetry," I. cxlix., dis. 2; Simeon Dunhelm, " Hist. Eccl. Dunhelm," 117.

go A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

them, fell into the sea. Through the merits of St. Cuthbert, the sea ebbing much
farther than usual, it was found upon the sands, above three miles from the shore,
without having received injury from the water.1 The original binding having been,
most likely, despoiled of its ornaments at the period of the Reformation, has been
replaced by a russia covering.

It is related that Wilfrid, Archbishop of York, who died A.D. 677, had a copy of the
Gospels written on the finest vellum, and placed in a cover enriched with gems and gold.2

A book of even greater historic interest is the Stowe manuscript containing the
Passionale, a portion of the Holy Gospels, used for the coronation oath of English sove-
reigns, the original book, in fact, upon which all our kings, from Henry I. (A.D. 1 100) to
Edward VI. (A.D. 1547), took the coronation oath. (Stowe MSS. No. 251.) The pages of
this most interesting manuscript are a hundred and seventy-four in number. The beautiful
letters nearly approach Roman capitals in form. A memorandum in the autograph of
John Ives, dated Yarmouth, Norfolk, St. Luke's Day, 1772, gives the following account
of it : " This very ancient curious and valuable old manuscript appears to be the original
book on which our kings and queens took their coronation oaths before the Refor-
mation." The book appears to have been written and bound for the coronation of
Henry I. The original binding, which is still in a perfect state, consists of two oaken
boards, nearly an inch thick, fastened together with stout thongs of leather, and the
corners defended with large bosses of brass. On the front cover is a crucifix of
gilt bronze, which was kissed by the kings upon their inauguration. The covers are
fastened by a strong clasp of brass, fixed to a broad piece of leather secured with two
brass pins. This book was afterwards in the library of the Duke of Buckingham at
Stowe. At the sale of the Stowe collections in 1849, it was purchased for the British
Museum.3 It was formerly registered in the Exchequer as " a little book with a crucifix."
A reproduction of a photograph of this binding is given on the opposite page. A
drawing of it by Vertue is in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries.4

Another manuscript Gospel, partly Latin and partly Saxon, in the British Museum
(Cotton MSS. Titus D. xxvii.), is also bound with oaken boards, one being inlaid with
pieces of carved ivory supposed to have been executed at a later period. These carvings
are, however, very curious and deserving of notice. The first consists of our Saviour, with
an angel above Him ; the second of the Virgin with Christ in her lap — the Virgin is in
half length ; the third is a small whole length of Joseph with an angel above. A gilt
nimbus is round the head of each, but that which encircles the Virgin is perfect ;
and the compartment in which she appears (about 5 inches high) is twice the size of
each of the others. The draperies throughout are good. It is altogether a choice
specimen of ancient binding.5 This mode of external ornament is further illustrated
by the following description of two books by Mr. Astle, in a paper on crosses and
crucifixes : " A booke of Gospelles garnished and wrought with antique worke of silver

1 Astle, "Writing," p. 101. * Dibdin's " Bib. Decam.," ii. 434.

2 Arckceologia, vol. iv., p. 57. 5 Ibid.

3 Moule, " Bibliotheca Heraldica," 493.

BINDING OF THE BOOK WHICH HENRY I. AND SUBSEQUENT KINGS OF ENGLAND ARE SAID TO
HAVE USED AT THEIR CORONATION.

(Photographed from the original at the British Museum.)

92 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

and gilte with an image of the crucifix, with Mary and John, poiz together cccxxij. oz." In
the Jewel House in the Tower " a booke of gold enameled, clasped with a rubie, having
on th' one syde a crosse of dyamounts, and vj. other dyamounts, and th' other side a
flower de luce of dyamounts, and iiij. rubies with a pendante of white sapphires, and
the armes of Englande. Which booke is garnished with small emeraldes and rubies
hanging to a chayne pillar fashion set with xv. knottes, everie one conteyning iij. rubies
(one lacking)." '

It was also usual in early times to engrave the arms of the owner on the clasps
which were generally attached to books. Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, mentions in
her will, in 1339, " a Chronicle of France," in French, with two clasps of silver, enamelled
with the arms of the Duke of Burgoyne ; " a book containing the Psalter, Primer, and
other devotions, with two clasps of gold enamelled with her arms ; a French Bible in
two volumes, with two gold clasps enamelled with the arms of France ; and a Psalter
richly illuminated, with the clasps of gold enamelled with white swans, and the arms of
my lord and father enamelled on the clasps." 2 Among the books in the inventory of the
effects of Sir John Fastolfe, were two " Myssayles closyd with sylver," and a " Sauter
claspyd with sylver, and my maysters is armys and my ladyes ther uppon." i

The Bedford Missal is, perhaps, as splendid a specimen of the taste and ingenuity
of art in the fifteenth century as any book extant. It contains fifty-nine large miniatures,
occupying nearly the whole page, and above a thousand small ones, in circles of about
an inch in diameter, displayed in elegant borders of golden foliage, with variegated
flowers, etc. Among the portraits are whole-length ones of John, Duke of Bedford,
Regent of France in the reign of Henry VI., and of his duchess. The volume measures
1 1 by 75, inches in width, and 2\ inches in thickness. It is bound in crimson velvet
with gold clasps, whereon are engraved the arms of Harley, Cavendish, and Hollis
quarterly. The Duke of Bedford presented it to his nephew Henry VI.4 It was bought
of the Somerset family by Harley, second Earl of Oxford ; from whom it came to the
late Duchess of Portland, at whose sale Mr. Edwards became the owner for 215 guineas.
It was sold again in 181 5 to the Marquis of Blandford for £687 15^. Sir John Tobin
was the next possessor ; it has now found a resting-place in the British Museum.

In the year 1888 Mr. Bernard Quaritch had in his possession a very remarkable
binding, apparently North Italian work of the early thirteenth century. It was super-
imposed upon a fifteenth-century manuscript of Officio. Sororum ordinis Bead Augus-
tini, written about A.D. 1480. The binding is in velvet, the front side covered with
a gilt metal plate exhibiting, in repousse and hammered work, a design in relief of our
Saviour seated on a rainbow, with the terrestrial globe at his feet, and surrounded by
the symbols of the four Evangelists and the Agnus Dei ; four rock crystals, polished
en cabochon, form the corner ornaments. The letters A and M, for A and SI (alpha
and omega), stand one on the left, the other on the right of the enthroned Christ.

1 Archceologia, vol. xiii., p. 220. 3 Archcsologia, vol. xxi., p. 276.

2 Nicolas, "Test. Vetusta," i. 148.

4 Home's "Bibliography," i. 302; and Nichol's " Illust.," vi. 296 (MS. Add. 18,850).

ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL BOOKBINDING.

93

In the British Museum may be seen a manuscript of the four Gospels in Latin,
written, probably in Western Germany, in the ninth century ; bound in wooden boards
covered with silver plates, showing traces of gilding, of the fourteenth century. In a
sunk panel on the upper cover is a seated figure of Christ, in high relief ; the hollow
beneath it is filled with relics. The borders have a scroll-and-leaf pattern repousse, and,
as well asthe panel, are set with gems, renewed in 1838. At the two outer corners are
the symbols of SS. Luke and John, set in translucent enamel of deep blue, the nimbi
green. On the under side is a sunk panel, with an ivy-leaf pattern repouss^ and an
embossed Agnus Dei in the centre. So far as the history of this book is known, it
appears to have been in England since the beginning of this century ; in 1831 it was
purchased at Sothebys at the sale of Lord Strangford's library by Bishop Butler of
Lichfield for £100. The Museum bought it in 1841. (Additional MSS. 11, 848.)

In an inventory of goods belonging to the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London,
mention is made of a Bible containing in its fore cover the relics which Bishop Theodore
had presented to the church.1 A curious binding of this kind is mentioned by Scaliger
as being on a printed Psalter in his mother's possession. The cover was 2 inches thick,
and in the inside was a kind of cupboard, wherein was a small silver crucifix, and behind
it the name of Berenica Cadronia de la Scala'r Although this appears to have been a
late example of what may be termed a " shrine-binding," there is no doubt that book-
covers were often used to contain some small object of adoration or relic of a saint.
Hansard speaks of a book he had seen with a recess for a relic, and that relic a human
toe.3

The particulars given sufficiently exhibit the varied talent of ancient European
bookbinders ; time, damp, the worm, and religious zealotry having worked the de-
struction of the coverings of nearly all early manuscripts ; though to the latter cause
must be attributed not only the scarcity of proof of what the bindings of these talented
monks and artists were, but often the entire loss of the books themselves. The mistaken
zeal, enthusiasm, and bigotry of the early leaders of the Reformation, and of those they
employed, swept away without distinction the works of the learned with the books of
devotion preserved in the religious houses, and deprived the world of many treasures.
Books and bindings were alike destroyed, and even in cases where the book may
have been preserved, the cupidity of official visitants of the religious establishments
would lead to the destruction of many valuable ornaments with which the bindings
were enriched and decorated.

Not only were the libraries completely sacked, but the huge volumes which contained
the ancient services, and abounded in all the churches and monasteries, were destroyed
without mercy, ardently and enthusiastically. Many of these books had been brought
direct from Rome, where a manufactory of such works had for some centuries existed.
An immense volume was laid upon the lutrin, or reading-desk, in the middle of the
choir, and the letters and musical notes, which accompanied the words, were of such a

1 Archmologia, vol. 1., p. 451. 2 Palmer's "History of Printing," p. 96.

3 Hansard's "Typographia," p. 105.

94 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

magnitude, and so black, that they could be read by the canons, as they sat in
their stalls, with as much ease as an inscription on a monument. These ponderous
volumes, which were seldom removed from the desk, or only carried to the adjoining
sacristy, were a part of the furniture, and almost of the fixtures, of the churches,
and were frequently therefore of some antiquity.1 They were garnished with corners
of brass, with bosses, and brass nails, to preserve the bindings from injury in being
rubbed on the desk or pulpit, and protected from dust by massive clasps. Some of
the largest of these service-books were, for further protection, laid upon rollers ;
but probably these very large books are not so ancient as at first sight might be
imagined.

It is related of Petrarch, that he had a manuscript of Cicero's Letters transcribed by
himself ; the book was so heavy that he kept continually dropping it on his legs, till at
last one was so severely injured that it almost became necessary to amputate the
limb. In some instances we find that these great books were provided with loose
bands running round the backs and fastened to either side as a protection to the
book, the joints of which would be liable to break with the strain
and weight of the heavy sides.

The accumulation of books, though slow, had, in a great
number of years, led to the formation of many considerable libra-
ries in the houses of the religious at the period of the Reformation.2
Of the extent of the devastation and frightful havoc then com-
mitted a writer of the time gives an account. Speaking of the
french binding, destruction of books, he indignantly says : " Never had we been
fifteenth century. offended for the loss of our libraries, being so many in number,
and in so desolate places for the more part, if the chief monuments and most notable
works of our most excellent writers had been preserved. If there had been in every
shire of England but one solempne library, to the preservation of those noble works,
and preferment of good learning in our posterity, it had been yet somewhat. But to
destroy all without consideration is, and will be, unto England for ever a most horrible
infamy among the grave seniors of other nations. A great number of them which
purchased those superstitious mansions, reserved of those library books, some to scour
their candlesticks, and some to rub their boots ; some they sold to the grocers and
soap-sellers ; some they sent over sea to the bookbinders, not in small numbers, but at
times whole ships full, to the wondering of the foreign nations. Yea, the universities
of this realm are not all clear of this detestable fact. But cursed is that belly which
seeketh to be fed with such ungodly gains, and shameth his natural country. I know
a merchant man, which shall at this time be nameless, that bought the contents of two
noble libraries for forty shillings price ; a shame it is to be spoken. This stuff hath he
occupied in the stead of grey paper, by the space of more than ten years, and yet he
hath store enough for as many years to come ! " 3

1 Edinburgh Review, xlviii. 96. 2 Leland's "Collectanea," i. 109.

3 Bale's Preface to "Leland's Journey," 1549.

ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL BOOKBINDING. 95

To take but a single instance of this wholesale destruction of books and their
bindings — for the subject is a painful one — we may relate that the Commissioners of that
misguided boy Edward VI. came to Oxford in the year 1550, and found the magnificent
public library, which Humfray, Duke of Gloucester, had founded in the year 1426, full
of books deemed to be " popish." Some they burned, others they sold to bookbinders
to cut up for covers and end-papers, or to tailors for measures. This was done without
due examination of the contents of the volumes, the ornaments upon the binding being
enough in many instances to seal the fate of a book. How the rest of the collec-
tion was dispersed is not known; but in 1556 not a volume remained, and the
University sold the benches at which the readers had sat. When Sir Thomas Bodley
returned to Oxford at the commencement of the seventeenth century he found Duke
Humfray's library a roofless and grass-grown ruin. Any one familiar with the books
of a seventeenth-century library must have noticed numbers of small volumes bound
in leaves of illuminated manuscripts. In the Thomas Hall Collection, formerly in the
ancient Grammar School of King's Norton, Worcestershire, and now forming part
of the Free Reference Library at Birmingham, may be seen several books so bound ;
relics of the Reformation deserving careful preservation as showing how well-meant
but mistaken zeal may lead to wanton destruction of valuable art treasures.

With these facts before us it need not be a matter of surprise how few specimens of
bookbinding, prior to the introduction of printing, now exist. Previous extracts have
shown the early adoption of wooden boards as side covers for books by the monastic
binders. Strength and durability were most studied. The monastic binders sewed
the sheets on pieces of skin or parchment ; and even carried their precaution so far
as to protect each sheet externally and internally with a slip of parchment, to prevent
the thread, with which the book was sewn, cutting the vellum or paper, and to protect
the back from injury. When the boards were first covered, it appears that a common
parchment or vellum was often used, but for this roughly dressed deer-skin was some-
times substituted. In the library of Lord Norton at Ham's Hall, near Birmingham, there
was a manuscript chartulary of Worcester Priory, bound in deer-skin with the hair left on
the leather. Richard Chandos, Bishop of Chichester, mentions in his will, so early as the
year 1253, a "Bible, with a rough cover of skin," and bequeaths it to William de Selsey.1
Another proof of the adoption of this covering occurs in the " Accounts of the Households
of Edward I. and II.," contained in four manuscript volumes presented to the Society of
Antiquaries by. Sir Ashton Lever ; and which were in the original binding of calf-skin,
dressed like parchment with the hair on, and with razures of the hair made for writing the
inscription.2 Elizabeth de Burgh, in the year 1355, by will left " to my hall, called Clare
Hall, Cambridge," among other books, one missal, covered with white leather or hide,
and one good Bible covered with black leather.3 More expensive ornament followed, as
has been shown.

1 Nicolas " Testamenta Vetusta," ii. 762. -' Archtzologia, vol. vii., pp. 418, 419.

3 Nicolas, i. 58

96

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Velvet was long the material used for the covers of the best works. Nicholas
incidentally mentions the use of this material in the fourteenth century. " The Bible,
when first translated into Latin, was divided into four or six parts. In the will of
St. Richard, Bishop of Chichester 1258, he bequeathed to each of the four orders of friars,
one part, ' glossatam,' which means with marginal notes. In the next century the
Bible was translated into French, and there are references to an illuminated manuscript
„,,„». _j™-™^ w'tn a commentary, bound in

two volumes covered with velvet,
with clasps of gold, enamelled
with the arms of the prince or
nobleman at whose expense the
book was made. Psalters were
more common. Missals, as has
been before remarked, were so
splendid as to have miniatures
on every page, and were en-
riched with jewels on the velvet
covers."1

The wills of the nobility
of this country, in times when
it was the custom to leave
books as legacies to friends
and ecclesiastical bodies, furnish
the best evidence of the use
of velvet as a cover for books
in these times. In the will
of Lady Fitzhugh, A.D. 1427,
several books, etc., are thus
bequeathed : —

"Als so I wyl yat my son
William have a Ryng with a
dyamond and my son Geffray
a gretter, and my son Rob't a
sauter covered with rede velwet,
and my doghter Mariory a
primer cou'ed in Rede, and my

doghter Darcy a sauter cou'ed in blew, and my doghter Malde Eure a prim' cou'ed

in blew." 2

Eleanor, Countess of Arundel, left by will to Ann, wife of her nephew, Maurice

Berkeley, a book of Matins covered with velvet. This was in the year 1455 ; and in

1 Nicolas, i. xxvii. Notes.

s "Wills and Inventories," Part I., Surtees Society; and Nicolas, i. 213.

BINDING IN GREEN VELVET WITH SILVER ORNAMENTS, ON A BOOK ONCE
BELONGING TO MARGUERITE, WIFE OF JAMES IV. OF SCOTLAND.

{Photographed from the original at the British Museum.)

ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL BOOKBINDING. 97

1480 a similar bequest was made to her daughter by Ann, Duchess of Buckingham,
of a primer covered with purple velvet, with clasps of silver-gilt.1

It is not known when velvet was first woven. The oldest piece which can be
referred to is a cope of the fourteenth century still preserved at the College of Mount
St. Mary, Chesterfield ; but the records just quoted prove velvet to have been used as
a cover for books long before the time usually assigned to it, and show that varieties
of colour were adopted according to the taste of the owner of the volume. This was
particularly the case in the fourteenth century, for among the courtesies of love in
chivalric times the present of books from knights to ladies was not forgotten, and it
happened more often than monkish austerity approved that a volume, bound in
sacred guise, contained not a series of hymns to the Virgin, but a variety of amatory
effusions to a terrestrial mistress.2

The will of Walter, Lord Hungerford, also proves the use of coloured cloths for
binding at an early period. He bequeathed in 1449 to Lady Margaret, wife of Sir
Robert Hungerford his son, " my best Legend of the lives of the saints in French,
and covered with red cloth." z Great ladies often had their books of devotion bound
in velvet ornamented with silver guards and studs. A particularly brilliant example
is carefully preserved in the Bodleian Library (MS. Douce 135) ; but one of the prettiest
bindings of this kind may be seen at the British Museum. The boards are covered
with green velvet. At each corner and in the centre are Tudor roses in silver,
each with a letter in the centre. These letters spell the word " MARGVERITE,"
probably representing the name of a former owner, Marguerite Tudor, wife of James IV.
of Scotland. On the clasps are "IHS. A," and " NNA," the sacred monogram and the
name of the princess for whom the dainty book was made, Anna, wife of Ferdinand,
King of the Romans, afterwards Emperor. The book is entitled, " Le Chappelet de
Jesus et de la Vierge Marie." It contains a metrical life of Christ, etc., illustrated
with a series of fine miniatures. For simplicity and beauty this binding can scarcely
be surpassed.

Velvet, being by no means a durable material, is never likely to supersede leather
as a covering for books ; and it is not surprising that, while many books were bound in
precious metals and rich stuffs, the art of working upon leather was advancing, until in
the fifteenth century it almost attained to the perfection of a fine art. Its use, however,
was not restricted to bookbindings ; hangings for the walls and carpets for the floors were
also produced in leather finely decorated in raised and coloured designs. " Leathers for
laying down in the rooms in summer-time " are mentioned in the inventories of furniture
belonging to the Duke of Burgundy ; and in 1416 Isabeau of Bavaria and the Duke
of Berry ordered leather carpets and hangings from Cordova, at that time the chief seat
of the leather industry.

We will now take a more particular survey of bookbinding in the various European
countries.

1 Nicolas, i. 279,357. 2 Mill's "History of Chivalry," i. 42. 3 Nicolas, i. 258.

7

BINDING OF A BREVIARY (FRONT), FIFTEENTH CENTURY GERMAN HAND-WROUGHT LEATHER.

GERMAN MEDLEVAL BOOKBINDING.

99

In Germany all through the Middle Ages many magnificent specimens of book-
binding were made both in monasteries and in the workshops of artists
<©0ttTl9np. who were not monks. Judging from specimens which we have seen,
XIV. and XV. German mediaeval binding was very fine. The Germans excelled in
enturies. ornamenting leather ; they manufactured many beautiful bindings
covered with a variety of stampings produced by means of small dies, and ornamented
with metal clasps, corner-pieces, and bosses. Some of the monasteries appear to
have used distinctive stamps, and in a few instances in the fifteenth or early
sixteenth century the binder placed his name in a little label upon the sides of the
books he bound. When the art of orna-
menting leather was first practised in
Germany we have not been able to ascer-
tain, but there is no doubt that in that
country it found a congenial home. The
ancient Spanish leather-work from Cordova
was soon imitated in Italy and the Low
Countries, and later in France and Germany.
Paris, Lyons, Carpentras, and Avignon ; ( I ,1
Augsburg and Nuremberg were the chief % \ eJ
cities famed for this kind of work. The
decoration was produced in various ways.
One of the oldest processes is sometimes
called cuir boidlli ; the leather was cut with
a knife and raised in relief. The punched
cuir bouilli, according to M. de Laborde,
is a later process. True cuir bouilli was
practised in the ninth century, while the
punched variety dates from the fourteenth ;
but besides the difference in decoration
there was also a difference in preparing the
leather. To so high a degree of elabora-
tion was this ornamented leather brought
by German artists, that its richness rivalled goldsmith's work ; and being entirely
produced by tools directed by the hand, no two pieces were exactly alike, so that there
was great variety as well as artistic merit in these products of mediaeval bookbinders.
Nuremberg was especially celebrated for wrought-leather bindings ; these were decorated
with designs cut in the flat surface of the leather, the background being slightly sunk
and covered with minute punchings, so that the design appeared in relief. Several
specimens of wrought-leather bindings may be. seen at the British Museum, and one
of unusual size and beauty is exhibited in the Bodleian Library (MS. Douce 367).
Upon it, on the upper side, several grotesque figures of men and women are represented
among gracefully twining foliage; the under side is ornamented with representations

GERMAN BINDING IN HAND-WROUGHT LEATHER,
FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

BINDING OF A BREVIARY (BACK) FIFTEENTH CENTURY, GERMAN HAND-WROUGHT LEATHER.

ITALIAN MEDIAEVAL BOOKBINDING. 101

of fabulous animals cut with much spirit and quaint humour. The metal corner-
pieces to this volume deserve special attention. This mode of decoration being suitable
for heraldic devices, we find that German artists in leather produced many beautiful
designs upon bookbindings belonging to nobles and others entitled to bear arms.

Stamped-leather bindings of German origin generally have their ornament planned
in a special manner (see chap, x.) ; but beyond the points already mentioned German
binding possesses few peculiarities, and, up to the present time, the artists of that
country have never formed what may be called a national style of binding.

From the great extent of the country, German bookbinders have, however, always
been numerous. They had at an early period laws for their guidance, and the tax
or price for binding books in sheep-skin, vellum, etc., settled by the magistrates.
Throughout the electorate of Saxony, the prices in sheep were, for large folios, one
guilder or florin, three grosses ; common folio, one florin ; large quarto, twelve grosses ;
common quarto, eight grosses ; large octavo, five grosses ; common octavo, four grosses ;
duodecimo, three grosses. These prices, we imagine, could not have been fixed at an
early period, but they may have been based on an earlier tariff.1

In Spain and Italy up to the fifteenth century bookbinding seems to have

flourished. Some Italian bindings appear to have been sui generis ,

j|KU]?« they were in fact pictures, and very curious and interesting. In the

XIV. and XV. libraries ancj among the archives of many Italian cities may be found
Centuries. . . . . . . .

bindings of great artistic merit ; but the city of Siena is especially

famous for a wonderful collection, commencing perhaps as early as the thirteenth century

and extending to the seventeenth. It is probably owing to the intelligent care bestowed

upon the preservation and arrangement of this splendid collection by the government

of that city that so much is known about the history of Sienese bookbinding ; for

without doubt other ancient cities could have exhibited a collection equally interesting

had they been inclined to do so.

The magnificent collection of archives of the city and district of Siena is now
admirably arranged in the Palazzo del Governo, and the muniments of many private
families of the province have also been confided to the custody of the director of
that institution. The covers of the Treasury books there preserved have been framed,
and hung chronologically in the long corridors of the upper story of the palace.
The series is almost contemporary with the local school of painting, and includes
the work of most of the great masters and their pupils ; the whole development of
Sienese art from the thirteenth century down to modern times may thus be studied
on the bindings, the subjects being as various as they are numerous.

Some of the paintings have been identified as the work of Duccio di Buoninsegna,
the artist who designed the noble retable for the high altar of the cathedral, and perhaps
the greatest master of the Sienese school, whilst others are certainly by the Lorenzetti.

1 Fritzsche, " Dissertation on Bookbinders."

102 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti's famous symbolical figure of the government of Siena, formerly
supposed to represent an emperor, is reproduced very closely on a cover of the year 1343— 44
— i.e., four years after the last recorded date of payment for the master's fresco in the
Sala dei Nove in the Palazzo Publico. Upon one of these remarkable covers is a
picture of the interior of Siena Cathedral showing the original arrangement of the
choir, with the great pulpit of Niccolo Pisano on the south side within the choir screen,
and Duccio's famous retable in its place over the high altar. Some of these pictures
represent chambers in the Sienese Treasury, with figures of officers and citizens. Three
of these bindings are at present in England, and are fully described below.

In the Netherlands, public account-books and records were sometimes adorned
with paintings on the cover ; but these, so far as is known, were purely heraldic,
representing the armorial achievements of the officers of State and other great
persons. The bright little bindings executed in Italy and France in the sixteenth
century, and sometimes called " Medici enamels," on account of the patterns in
coloured pigments which enrich their sides, may be survivals of the ancient practice
of painting bindings. In Germany also leather bindings were sometimes adorned
with the arms of princes and dukes, painted in brilliant colours on panels slightly
recessed. Our own Exchequer records exhibit pictorial symbols of a rough kind
on the exterior, but these marks are practical rather than ornamental in character.

South Kensington Museum possesses a small Sienese book-cover belonging to the
accounts of a city official for the six months from January to July 13 10. The cover is
formed of an oblong panel of wood, measuring about 14! by 8i inches, divided across the
middle by an attached leather strap painted red with a white pattern ; at the four corners
are large-headed iron nails, which have prevented the painting from being scratched.
The upper portion above the strap has a picture brilliantly painted in tempera,
representing a monk seated at a table counting money. He is the Chamberlain Frate
Meo, of the order of the Umiliati, and his name is written in black letters on a white
ground below the picture ; he is clothed in a white habit with the hood over his head.

Two covers exhibited by Messrs. Ellis & Elvey of New Bond Street to the
Society of Antiquaries on February 4th, 1892, and now in South Kensington Museum,
are thus described by Mr. Alfred Higgins, F.S.A. : —

The earlier of the two specimens bears an inscription in Italian on the lower half
of its outer surface, written in fine Gothic letters, recording that it once covered the
book of receipts and expenditure of the Treasury of the commune of Siena for the six
months from July 1357 to January of the same year {i.e., to January 1358, according
to our reckoning). The names of the chamberlain and the four other members of the
Board of Treasury (as we should call it) are set out at length, and also that of their
clerk. In the upper part of the cover, divided from the inscription by an attached band
of leather, is a painting in tempera representing a scene in the interior of the Treasury.
On the further side of a long counter is seated to the left a clerk, who apparently holds
in one hand a draft, which he is about to enter in a book. To the right is a cashier,
who is counting out gold coin to a man in an Oriental-looking costume (possibly a Jew)

w«-sei- fflesi- cioe in p

WOODEN COVER OF AN ACCOUNT-BOOK OF THE CITY OF SIENA,

A.D. 13 IO. PAINTED GESSO, ITALIAN, I4TH CENTURY.

(Photographed from the original in South Kensington Museum.)

FRENCH MEDIAEVAL BOOKBINDING. 103

in the right foreground. Between clerk and cashier is placed a Treasury chest, one
compartment of which contains gold.

The cover consists of a panel of light wood, 14 inches long by 10 inches broad,
and I inch thick. The back surface is that of the natural wood, planed and smoothed.
Upon the front surface there was laid the usual priming of gesso preparatory to
painting. The leather band which divides the picture from the inscription was fixed
in its place before the gesso was applied. Both picture and inscription are framed
in with narrow gold borders, bearing a simple incised pattern of leaves and dots. The
gold coins are marked by black rings, produced by a punch on a gold ground. The
lines of the inscription are unspaced, but are divided by red lines, and the lower part
of the field is filled by boldly drawn foliated scroll work, also in red, producing
altogether a very rich effect.

The second specimen is the cover of a similar book, relating to the six months
from January 1401 to June 1402, according to the reckoning of the period. As in
the example just described, the picture on the upper part of the panel represents a
chamber in the Sienese Treasury. On the near side of the counter stand three
men. By a convenient painter's licence, they are represented as of very diminutive
stature, in order that they may not interfere with the spectator's view of the officials
on the other side of the counter. Two Treasury chests are shown. On a ledge, running
the whole length of the space behind the officials, is a row of account books, laid with
their faces to the front ; upon each book is painted a black shield.

Below the picture, in place of the strip of leather, is a fine band of ornament
displaying six large shields of arms. The cover measures 17 by 12J inches.
Technically the methods of decoration are identical on all the covers, but the
skill with which the gilded gesso on this one is ornamented by blunted styles of
varying size should be observed. No stamps are applied.1

We have before noticed the beautiful ivory, gold, and jewelled bindings for which
Italy is justly renowned. In leather-work the old Italian binders also excelled, though
they copied the technica of the Oriental school.

In the matter of bookbinding France seems to have followed the lead of Italy and

other countries till she established a school of her own in the six-

. jFtftttCC. teenth century. The magnificent specimens of binding belonging to

XIII. to XV. thg Carolingian and succeeding period have already been noticed ; from

enturies. t^at tjme tju tke rejgn 0f loujs XII. (1498 — 1515) we know of no

examples of French binding which call for special notice.

Art was scarcely associated with the work of preservation of the majority of
French books before the fifteenth century. Leather, velvet, and other rich stuffs
were used to cover the wooden sides ; but no further adornments, except a few metal

1 For the above account I am indebted to the excellent paper by Alfred Higgins, Esq., F.S.A.,
in the " Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries," vol. xiv., No. 1, second series (1892). — Ed.

104 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

studs, of greater or less value according to the wealth or taste of the possessor,
are to be found upon the covers of ordinary books. M. Leon Gruel, in his valuable
treatise on bookbinding,1 states that in the north of France, as well as in Germany,
much excellent binding was produced between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries ;
but artists in this epoch had not abandoned the plain style of binding destined to
receive plaques of ivory and precious metal, which the Byzantine style had rendered
fashionable.

French leather bindings of the thirteenth century are exceedingly rare, but
one dating from the time of St. Louis (1226 — 1270) is extant. It once protected a
French manuscript written about the middle of the thirteenth century. The wooden sides
are covered with pig-skin parchment of a red colour. This colour, which resembles
scarlet-lake, is said to have been used exclusively by royalty ; we need not then be
surprised to learn that this binding, which has come down to us minus the contents,
is said to have been made for the king, St. Louis himself. The sides are adorned with a
variety of stampings, and the composition, though rather bare, is on a large scale. The
stamps include the fleur-de-lis of France and the towers of Castile, emblem of Louis'
queen Blanche. There is also a chimasra, or fantastic beast, which then was a usual
ornament. The general arrangement of the stamps is vertical. A few French bindings
of that period bear traces of English influence in the design and arrangement of their
stampings.

It is generally supposed that the Crusades gave a considerable impetus to European
art, but perhaps this influence has been over-rated. The Arabs, it is true, had for ages
known the art of preparing, dyeing, stamping, and gilding leather ; they were also skilful
bookbinders. The covers of their books, it is said, took the name of wings (ala;) from
the resemblance between them and the wings of a bird of rich plumage.

In the reign of Philip IV., in the year 1299, when a tax was imposed upon the
inhabitants of Paris for the exigencies of the king, it was ascertained that the number
of bookbinders actually engaged in the city was seventeen. These men, as well as
the scribes and booksellers, were directly dependent on the University, the authorities of
which placed them under the surveillance of four sworn bookbinders, who were con-
sidered the agents of the University. One binder, however, was exempt ; he was attached
to the cliavibre des comptes, and, before his appointment to that office, had to affirm
that he could neither read nor write.2 In the musters, or processions, of the University of
Paris, the bookbinders came after the booksellers. Considering the number of books
written and bound within the walls of monasteries, and the comparatively small number
then annually produced, the seventeen bookbinders of Paris probably well represented
the binding trade of France.

Coming to a later period, we are able to gather some useful information about
binding from the inventories of goods and jewels belonging to kings and nobles. In
the inventories of goods belonging to the wealthy dukes of Burgundy, Philip the Bold,

1 Lion Gruel, " Manuel Historique de r Amateur de Reliures."

2 Paul Lacroix, "The Arts of the Middle Ag-es.''

FRENCH MEDIAEVAL BOOKBINDING. 105

Jean sans Peur, and Philip the Good, who lived about the end of the fourteenth and the
beginning of the fifteenth century, we find : —

" A Book of the Gospels and of Heures de la Croix, with a binding embellished with
gold and fifty-eight large pearls, in a case made of camlet, with one large pearl and a
cluster of small pearls.

"The Romance of Moralite des Hommes sur le Ju (jeu) des Eschiers (the game of
chess), covered in silk with white and red flowers and silver-gilt nails, on a green ground.

" A Book of Orisons covered in red leather, with silver-gilt nails.

" A Psalter having two silver-gilt clasps, bound in blue, with a gold eagle with two
heads and red talons, to which is attached a little silver-gilt instrument for turning over
the leaves, with three escutcheons of the same arms, covered with a red velvet chemise." 1

Many references to these bag-covers — chemises, as they are called in French — occur
in inventories ; for instance, in the " Comptes Royaux " we have : —

1360. For cendal to line the cover of the king's missal.

1360. For making two covers for the king's books.

1463. For making a cover (chemisette) for the king's small " Book of Hours."

1492. A small missal bound in red leather and garnished with a cover (chemisette)
of red kid (Inventaire de Nostre Dame).

Among the goods of the Duke of Orleans, brother to Charles VI. (early fifteenth
century), were the following : —

" Vegece's book on Chivalry, covered in red leather inlaid, which has two little brass
clasps.

" The book of Meliadus, covered in green velvet with two silver-gilt clasps, enamelled
with the arms of His Royal Highness.

" The book of Boece on Consolation, covered in figured silk.

" The Golden Legend, covered in black velvet, without clasps.

" The Heures de Notre Dame, covered in white leather."

The same inventories give an account of prices paid for some bindings, which may
be compared with those paid in England by our own kings for similar work (see chap. xiv.).
In 1386 Martin Lhuillier, a bookseller at Paris, received from the Duke of Burgundy
16 francs (equal to about 114 francs French now) for binding eight books, of which
six were covered in grained leather.

On September 19th, 1394, the Duke of Orleans paid Peter Blondel, goldsmith, 12
livres, 15 sols, for having wrought, besides the duke's silver seal, two clasps for the
book of Boece; and on January 15th, 1398, to Emelot de Rubert, an embroideress at
Paris, 50 sols tournois, for having cut out and worked in gold and silk two covers
of green Dampmas cloth, one for the Breviary, the other for the " Book of Hours,"
and for having made fifteen markers (sinets) and four pairs of silk-and-gold straps for
the said books. Various sums were paid by the duke to Jacques Richier and
Guillaume de Villiers, his bookbinder, for materials used in binding.

1 Paul Lacroix, " The Arts of the Middle Ages."

106 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

From these extracts we may gather that in France in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries books, when belonging to wealthy persons, were covered with velvet, silk, and
other stuffs, with embroidery and with leather, enriched with ornaments of metal.

The passage which relates to a book when bound being placed in a " chemise " or
shirt Q' convert dune chemise de velvyan vermeil"} illustrates the well-known practice at
this period of covering a book in a piece of woven material or fine leather ; the " chemise "
was usually made larger than the sides of the book, so as to hang over the edges and
protect them from dust, or to fold over the page so that the fingers might not touch
the delicate leaves, a very necessary precaution to take in the case of a valuable
illuminated service-book when in constant use. Covers of this kind were often
represented in pictures.

These outer covers were at first made to protect rich bindings from injury, but
sometimes even these coverings received adornments of embroidery and precious metals.
For further information on this subject the reader is referred to the references given
below.1 An example may be seen in the Louvre protecting a " Livre d'Heures" of
St. Louis. This covering is made of a kind of rough silk called sendal, in colour red.
In England there are examples of somewhat similar covers at the Bodleian Library
and at the British Museum.

In the fourteenth century we find leather bindings coming into more general use,
and at the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth century
stamped-leather bindings are found in great numbers.

1 Becker und Hifner, " Kunstwerke und Gerathschaften " (1863), 3. Band, p. 56. Fairholt
"Costume in England" (i860), p. 219. Shaw, "Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages"
(1843), vol. ii., pi. 86 and p. 78. Laborde, " Glossaire Francais du Moyen Age" (Paris, 1872), p. 211.
Bork, " Geschichte der liturgischen Gewander des Mittelalters " (Bonn, 1866), Taf. xxxi. Archceo-
logia, vol. 1., part 1, p. 75 (where the above references are given).

^7^////W»//// = ^/$ Hi''

CHAPTER IX.1

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BOOKBINDING IN THE TWELFTH AND
THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.

T should be gratifying to Englishmen to know that in the twelfth century
their country took the lead of all Continental nations as regards
bookbinding. There was, in fact, at that period a distinct English
school of binding of the highest merit. Winchester, London, Durham,
Oxford, York, and a few other cities and monasteries, vied with each
other in the production of tooled-leather bindings of wonderful beauty.
It has been proved that these English bindings influenced foreign
art ; a few manuscripts bound in the Benedictine monastery at Durham in the twelfth
century were, at a later time, sent abroad, and the binders in the monastery to which
the English manuscripts had been given imitated the Durham stampings upon their
own more modern bindings. Not only were these early stamps imitated abroad, but
in the fourteenth century some of the old dies were still used by English binders, who
applied them in an inartistic manner very different from that of their twelfth-century
predecessors. Any one who has seen the great Bible of Bishop Pudsey, or looked
through a folio of rubbings of Durham bindings, must have been struck with the
richness, variety, and suitableness of their decorations ; not only are the individual
stamps meritorious, the arrangement of them is precise and skilful, contrasting most
favourably with the carelessly applied stampings of later bindings.

The sides of these old book-covers were tooled with a number of small stamps
or dies of various shapes, cut in intaglio so as to leave an impression, like a seal, in
cameo, — the exact opposite of the principle employed in gold tooling,— the effectiveness
of each stamp depending rather upon the high lights and corresponding shadows than
upon the actual design. The arrangement of the stamps was formal. In all known
examples an outer border of lines of stamps formed a parallelogram, within which
were arranged either other parallelograms, or circles, or portions of circles, all composed,
like the border, of a variety of small dies. No two examples are exactly alike, and
1 The head-piece is composed of fine stamps taken from a rubbing of the binding of the register
of the land belonging to the Knights Templars, about 1185.

107

108 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

if the plan of one side of a cover was arranged in straight lines, the other side was
often adorned with circles in a manner which seems to be peculiar to England.1

In some of the chief cities of England, from the twelfth century downwards, it
would appear that there were skilled professional bookbinders, who in all probability
were not monks. At Winchester and London this was certainly the case, and we
might also expect to find binders in provincial cities like York and Gloucester. The
art of working in leather, one of the most ancient and useful, could be applied to
many purposes. A man who knew how to cover boxes and coffers with leather,
ornamented with quaint devices, could fashion and adorn the binding of a book ; so,
although there may have been men who devoted their time entirely to bookbinding,
there were others who carried on this trade as an adjunct to occupations of a kindred
nature. The work of the monks, too, cannot be overlooked. The Benedictines at
Durham, and the monks of Hyde Abbey, Winchester, were in their day skilful book-
binders. With very simple tools these early binders produced ornament at once
effective and in excellent taste. Some of the best early stamps represent men, birds,
beasts, and fishes. The grotesque figures are full of expression and animation ; the
lion walks, the bird bends her neck to drink, and the stag bounds away from his
pursuer. In many instances the die-sinker copied the wild creatures then inhabiting
the woods and wastes in countless numbers, and whose habits were familiar to him
through long association. Other stamps represent fabulous beasts, conventional leaf
and flower ornaments, knights on horseback, bishops in canonicals, angels, and various
other subjects.

As an illustration of the long survival of these early stamps a binding in the
library of Westminster Abbey affords an excellent example. Upon the binding of
" Epistole Marsilii Ficini Florentini," printed in Venice in the year 1495, a number
of small stamps are arranged in the German manner, around the edge and in lozenge-
shaped spaces within a central panel. These stamps bear a striking resemblance to
those on the Winchester book, and if the same dies were not used for both they have
been very closely imitated. At Strassburg in the fifteenth century some strikingly
similar stamps were in use.

Comparatively few specimens of twelfth and early thirteenth century bindings are
extant. The precious examples from the Benedictine House at Durham are, however,
sufficient to prove how well the old monks could work, while the known examples of
London binding show that the city craftsmen were scarcely less skilful. To the scholarly
rule of St. Benedict, more than to any other, we owe the encouragement of art and
literature ; but the ordinary monastic records and books of accounts were roughly bound,
sometimes in undressed hide, sometimes in carefully prepared deer or sheep-skin, usually
without ornament, and therefore in striking contrast to the bindings we have to
describe next.

For convenience of reference we have arranged these bindings under the respective

1 Mr. E. Gordon Duff, " Burlington Fine Arts Club. Catalogue of Exhibition of Bookbindings,"
1891, Introduction.

STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING. ? WINCHESTER I 2TB CENTURY

UPON THE "WINTON DOMESDAY BOOK."

{From the collection oj ilu Society oj Antiquaries, London.)

ENGLISH STAMPED-I.EATHER BOOKBINDING IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 109

cities to which they arc supposed to belong, but it is obvious that it must be impossible
in every case to prove that a given binding was made in the place to which it is here
assigned. The same difficulty exists with regard to some examples found in France ;
four, which were made for Henry, son of Louis VII., and given by him to the Abbey of
Clairvaux in 1 146, arc supposed by Mr. Wcale to be English work, on the ground of
their similarity to undoubted English specimens, and the absence of anything like them
which can be proved to be French.1

Some forty undoubted examples of Early English leather bindings have been found.
To the distinguished librarian at South Kensington Museum, Mr. W. H. James Weale,
the world owes this discovery, for it was he who first drew attention to the remarkable
stamping upon the covers of early English manuscripts.

WINCHESTER. — The royal city of the Norman kings, where most of the official
business of the country was transacted, where records, like the great Domesday Survey
of 1086, were compiled, and where wealthy nobles and ecclesiastics congregated, would
be certain to attract within its walls craftsmen of various sorts, and among the number
some professional bookbinders. Research into the city records, and careful study of the
bindings of manuscripts obviously of Winchester origin, lead to the conclusion that
this was undoubtedly the case.-

The best known Winchester binding is that of the " Winton Domesday Book,"
now in the library of the Society of Antiquaries. This manuscript contains a record of
property within the city of Winchester, made by order of King Henry I., and dated
A. D. 1 148. The wooden sides of the binding are covered with dark red leather, which
has been carefully repaired in modern times. The sides measure 9£ by 6} inches. The
date of this binding cannot be later than the early years of the thirteenth century.

Obverse. — In plan, two circles placed within a parallelogram formed by vertical lines
of dies, eight on either side, placed about a \ inch apart. These oblong stamps bear two
winged animals with human heads. Near the fore edge is a row of nine circular stamps,
and near the back a similar row of small stamps ; these are connected at both head
and foot by two circular and two lobe-shaped stamps. The outer border of the circles,
formed by repetitions of a curved tool § inch wide and if inch long, is ornamented with
a simple leaf- and-branch pattern. In the centre is a circular dragon-stamp, and radiating
from it eleven lobe-shaped stamps bearing a cockatrice. The spaces between the circles
are tooled with small circular and lobe-shaped dies. On this side four large and two
small dies are used.

Reverse. — Here the plan is that of a parallelogram within a parallelogram. Four
large dies and one small circular die are used. In the centre a panel composed of
a repetition of square dies, ornamented with stags, arranged in two rows of five each,
\ inch apart and with small circular stamps at each angle. Around the panel is a
border of twenty and a half oblong stamps (f by f inch), bearing within a semi-

1 Mr. W. H. James Weale, The Bookbinder, vol. ii., p. 2.

: Mr. W. H. Weale, Paper read before the Society of Antiquaries, May 17th, 1888.

no A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

circle a pheasant (or similar bird) feeding. Around this border is a blank space tooled
only with small circles at intervals. Beyond, at the sides, lines of square dies, twenty-
two in all, with a goat running, and a twining branch background ; at the top and
bottom a curious dome-shaped stamp representing a sheep feeding, in all ten times
repeated.

LONDON. — Several examples supposed to be the work of a professional London
binder of the twelfth or early thirteenth century may still be seen in some of the
great public libraries. According to general belief, the volume preserved in the
Public Record Office, entitled " Inquisitio de Terrarum donatoribus per Angliam,"
being a register of the lands of the Knights Templars in England drawn up about 1185
and bound shortly after that date in oak boards covered with brown calf, is the work
of a London bookbinder ; and a book formerly in the library of St. Mary Overy,
Southwark, and now exhibited in the British Museum, is the work of the same
artist. An even more elaborate specimen, beautifully tooled with dies some of which
appear to be the same as those on the bindings referred to above, has lately been
discovered at the Bodleian (MS. Rawl. C. 163); but notwithstanding the similarity of
the tools to those used upon London manuscripts, it is probable that the binding
was made elsewhere.

(1) " Inquisitio de Terrarum," etc. Eleven large and two small stamps.

Obverse. — Each side has a border formed by repetition of stamps, the panel
enclosed being divided into three by two narrow vertical bands ; these bands, plain
on the obverse, are on the reverse relieved by small circles and quatrefoils. The
vertical portions of the border are formed by the repetition of nine rectangular stamps
of interlaced work formed by two dragons with floriated tails, and ten containing
a foliated cruciform ornament ; these are connected at both head and foot by a row
of fine palmated leaves. Central division : eight impressions of a rectangular stamp
representing a lion passant within a quatrefoil, flanked by four trefoils. Lateral
divisions : four eight-leaved rosettes, and three lobe-stamps with two dragons, from
the union of whose tails springs a stem terminating in a fleur-de-lis, on which is
perched a bird, the intervening spaces relieved by quatrefoils.

Reverse. — Vertical portions of border formed by repetition of two stamps : fourteen
lions passant on one side, facing as many dragons with tails terminating in foliage
on the other ; these are connected at both head and foot by three floriated ornaments,
each composed of two impressions of the same stamp. The central division : seven
impressions of a rectangular stamp, representing within a large quatrefoil, flanked by
four smaller ones, David crowned, seated with his legs crossed, playing the harp ; on
each side of this figure is a small quatrefoil. Lateral divisions each four circular
and three triangular stamps alternating, the former representing a gryphon, the latter
a heron standing on the back of a pike.1

(2) " Historia Evangelica," by Peter Comestor (Egerton M.S. 272), British Museum.

1 The Bookbinder, vol. ii., p. 4.

STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING. ? LONDON, EARLY

I3TH CENTURY. UPON "HISTORIA EYANGELICA"

[EGERTON MS. 272.]

(From the original in the British Museum.J

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BOOKBINDING IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY, in

Obverse. — Each side has a border formed by the repetition of stamps : eight, near
the back, oblong in form and containing dragons with interlaced tails ; ten square
stamps, near the fore edge, containing a foliated cruciform ornament ; these are
connected at both head and foot by rows of five palmated leaves. Eight impressions
of a rectangular stamp bearing a lion passant occupy the centre. So both in
arrangement and stamps this binding resembles that of the Templars' book, but the
lateral divisions differ, being here ornamented with three large circular and two lobe-
shaped stamps of dragons with foliated tails.

Reverse. — The stamps on this side are the same as those on the reverse of the
Templars' book, except in the two inner lateral rows, where a lobe-shaped stamp of
two dragons occupies the space assigned to the triangular stamp of the bird feeding
on a pike. Measurements : IO by 6h inches. Material : dark brown leather. Bands :
two.

YORK. — Our next example is undoubtedly English, and it may have been made at
York ; it is more beautiful than the bindings at the Record Office and British Museum
just described, but we are unable to identify it with certainty. The volume is now at the
Bodleian, Oxford. No less than thirty different dies were used to adorn the two sides of
this binding ; on the obverse are twelve stamps eleven large and one small, on the reverse
sixteen large and two small ones. Measurements : 14 by 9^ inches. (MS. Rawl. c. 163.)

Obverse. — Vertical portions of the border : ten rectangular panels, floriated orna-
ment, each composed of two impressions of the same stamp ; fifteen square stamps,
floriated ornament ; these are connected at both head and foot by rows of stamps, those
at the head being at present covered with modern leather and those at the foot partly
covered, but three stamps representing birds are visible. Central division : seven
impressions of a rectangular stamp representing a lion passant within a quatrefoil
flanked by four trefoils. This is flanked by two vertical rows of eight and a half
stamps, each with floriated ornament ; around this is a plain border relieved at intervals
with small circular stamps. The next border consists of two vertical rows of stamps :
to the left the winged figure of an angel kneeling, holding a book, the stamp is thirteen
times repeated ; to the right ten impressions of a stamp bearing the figure of an angel,
but differing from the last. At the corners are palmated leaves pointing outwards.
Lateral divisions : two eight-leaved rosettes and three lozenge-shaped interlacings. At
top and bottom a rosette.

Reverse. — The vertical portion of border : twelve rectangular dies with continuous
branch ornament forming circles in which are birds. Twenty-three triangular dies of a
bird feeding, joined at top by eight stamps of a hind running and (apparently) a bird
attacking it. This is a most beautiful stamp. Eight dragons. In the centre a circular
stamp of a dragon, surrounded by eight lobe-shaped stamps, pointing inwards — three
varieties, a dragon, a bird, and two dragons ; between each a rosette of ten points, and
near the centre a small circle. Two circular lines, dotted at intervals, join two vertical
borders, the one with a lion passant fourteen times repeated, the other alternately a

112 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

dragon and a winged lion. These are joined by three stamps at top, two griffins facing
one another ; at bottom by four and a half stamps of two lions with birds' heads,
rampant, facing one another. In the next border are ten circular dies of a bird, and
eight oblong of a fish, and six small rosettes. Measurements : 13 J by 9 \ inches.

Durham.- — Hugh Pudsey, bishop of Durham, who lived towards the end of the
twelfth century (11 53 — H9S), gave to the library of the church there a great Bible
and other books, which he had caused to be written and bound in the Benedictine
house overlooking the stream of Wear. Bishop Pudsey's books are to this day
preserved in the cathedral library ; they are triumphs of monkish art, and the bindings
are the finest known specimens of early English stamped leather. On the great Bible,
in four volumes, no less than fifty-one stamps or dies are employed, and on the cover
of the first volume alone there are twenty-seven different stamps. The plan of orna-
mentation on each volume is different, but the general effect of richness is the same in
all. Fine interlaced chain-work, somewhat like the ornament often found upon Italian
bindings, suggested perhaps by the guilloche ornament common on mosaic pavements
of the period of the Roman Empire, or possibly from Oriental models, characterise these
bindings. In addition to the interlaced ornament, the designs upon the stamps are
very varied, including the figures of angels, men and monsters, birds, beasts, and
vegetable forms too numerous to be specified here.

In the curious old library at Hereford Cathedral a Durham-bound book may be
seen ; it is a twelfth-century manuscript, " Dionysius de Ccelesti Hierarchia," and the
binding is very interesting.

Two volumes of Isaiah with glosses, given to the library of Durham by Master
Robert of Haddington, have borders of interlacing chain-work produced by the repetition
of an oblong stamp of a kind not found elsewhere on early English bindings. Since
there is a great similarity in all these bindings, and the space at our disposal prevents us
giving a description of all of them, we have selected as an example of Durham binding
the cover of one of Robert Haddington's books (A. III. 17), " Isaias Glosatus."

Reverse. — Eleven stamps. At top and bottom a row of square stamps, representing
the kneeling figure of a king, crowned, and apparently holding in his hand a cup with
a palm branch in it. This stamp is twelve times repeated at the top and eleven times
at the bottom. At the sides are rows of large palmated stamps, twelve in number, each
placed in a compartment bordered with double-ruled lines. In the next border, top
and bottom, are six circular dragon stamps. The inner border at top and bottom is
composed of five and a half square stamps, placed close together, containing the
representation of a nondescript monster. The central panel is lozenge-shaped ; the
triangles at the outer corners contain a triangular stamp of large size, ornamented
with a twining branch. In the central horizontal compartment are three stamps. That
in the centre contains a seated figure, apparently the Madonna with the Child upon
her knee. On either side is an elliptical stamp of David playing upon the harp. The
triangular compartments above and below contain interlaced work. Each line of

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BOOKBINDING IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 113

stamps is separated from the next by ruled lines, between which at intervals small
rosettes are placed.

Tlie obverse is slightly different in plan, and is ornamented with nine stamps, eight
of which are different from those on the reverse.

In the British Museum there is an early thirteenth-century manuscript entitled
" Liber Sapientias " (Add. MS. 24,076), in its original binding of dark leather elaborately
blind-tooled. This is an English binding, but we are at present unable to assign it to
any particular town or monastery. It bears a strong resemblance to the Durham
bindings, but the stamps are not the same as those found upon any of the Durham
books. Upon one side six and upon the other nine stamps are used, all archaic in
appearance. In the centre panel of the obverse side is a fine oval stamp, twice
repeated, containing the figure of a bishop holding a book in one hand and his staff
in the other. On the reverse is a curious series of stamps representing a church.

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CHAPTER X.

CONTINENTAL BOOKBINDING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY— PATRONS OF
LITERATURE — LEATHER BOOKBINDING, ENGLISH GUILDS — GERMAN,
ITALIAN, NETHERLANDISH, AND FRENCH BINDINGS.

HE art of bookbinding, both as respects style and variety of material
for the covers, was far advanced at the period which witnessed the
invention of printing. This invention, or rather its development, by
John Gutenberg, of Mayence, Mentz, or Mainz, about the year 1450,
took place at a fortunate moment, when, from many circumstances, it
became of more value to posterity by preserving a greater number
of the noblest literary productions of past ages than would have been
possible had it been postponed a century later. For while the art was in its infancy the
fall of Constantinople and the consequent dispersion of the extensive and magnificent
library of the Byzantine emperors, in affording great facilities to the early printers,
multiplied the most important classic treasures, many of which existed in single copies
only, and of which the accident of a moment might have deprived the world for ever.
Of the one hundred and twenty thousand manuscripts which are said to have dis-
appeared,1 a valuable portion was deposited in Italy, and afterwards issued from the
presses of the early printers ; many of these first printed books have been preserved to
our times by the sturdy integrity and firm workmanship of contemporary bookbinders.

Much has been written about the invention of printing, and both Germany and the
Low Countries claim the honour of having produced the first printer. It seems that the
honours are divided, for while the Dutch undoubtedly issued the earliest Donatuses,
the Germans can produce the earliest sheet printed entirely from movable types, the
famous Indulgence of Nicholas V., to such as should contribute money to aid the King
of Cyprus against the Turks, printed at Mayence in 1454.

The art of printing rapidly spread to the principal cities of Germany, Italy, and

1 Gibbon's " Rome."
114

CONTINENTAL BOOKBINDING IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

"5

France ; and since the early printers were bookbinders also, foreign bookbinders in-
creased in number, as the commerce in books became extended, and eventually spread
themselves over most other countries, many of them permanently settling in England.1

What printing was to the other arts, binding now, in an especial manner, became
to the productions of the press. That the practisers of the art were fully sensible
of this is shown by the firm way the bindings of early printed books, which are still
preserved, were executed. To this care we
may attribute the existence of so many speci-
mens of early typography, for if the slight
and careless manner in which some bindings
of a later date have been executed had at
that time been common, it is but reasonable
to suppose we should also have to regret the
loss of many of those specimens we now
possess.

The accompanying engraving, taken from
an old " Book of Trades," represents a six-
teenth-century bookbinder and his assistant
at work. The master, though seated and
taking his ease more than is now the prac-
tice, appears to be hammering away at a
book on the stone with a firm determination
of doing justice to his department. The opera-
tion of sewing is also here displayed ; while
among the foliage in the background an open
and a closed book, the one with clasps, the
other furnished with tags, are introduced.
Before the invention of machinery for rolling
and compressing the leaves, binders were ac-
customed to beat their books with a wooden
hammer, in order to produce as much solidity
as possible, a custom of which the poet
Clement Barksdale has left the following evidence in his
binder " : —

"Has my muse made a fault? Friend, I entreat,

Before you bi?td her up, you would her beat;

Though she's not wanton, I can tell,

Unless you beat her, you'll not bind her well."2

In the public libraries of the Continent — German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish,
etc. — many early specimens of binding, richly studded with gems or ornamented with

1 See "Act. Richard III.," chap, ix., sect. xii.

2 Clement Barksdale, " Nympha Libethris, or the Cotswold Muse," 95.

ANCIENT BOOKBINDERS AT WORK, FROM
OF TRADES."

Address to the Book-

n6 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

silver and gold, still exist ; and in the less pretending ones of the monasteries the oaken
boards of the fourteenth century, covered with vellum, are found attached to a great
number of books, and still in a good state of preservation.1

(1458 — 1490.) It is, however, on the Continent, as in our own country, to the
patronage of the wealthy and lovers of books that we have to attribute the successful
operation of the best workmen ; and in the history of their libraries and the specimens
remaining can we alone trace the progress of the art. To Mathias Corvinus, King of
Hungary, who died A.D. 1490, must be assigned the honour of the rank as first patron
of the period of which we are now treating. His library consisted of not less than
fifty thousand manuscripts and books,2 preserved in the most costly bindings and
embellished with all that ingenuity could suggest or wealth procure. This splendid
collection was preserved in a vaulted gallery. The books were chiefly bound in stamped
leather, red velvet, or brocade, protected by bosses and clasps of silver, or other precious
metals. Bonfinius, referring to them, says, " cultus librorum luxuriosissimus." The
destruction of the library took place in 1526, when Solyman II. laid siege to Buda.
The city was taken by assault, and the library, with all its exquisite appurtenances,
became a prey to the rapacity of the Turkish soldiers. The bindings, torn from the
books which they protected, were stripped of their costly ornaments.3 Obsopasus
relates that a manuscript of the Ethiopics of Heliodorus was brought to him by
a Hungarian soldier, who in the pillage had acquired and preserved it, with many
others, as a prize, from the cover retaining some marks of gold and silver workman-
ship. Cardinal Bozmanni offered for the redemption of this inestimable collection
two hundred thousand pieces of the imperial money, but without effect.4 The
manuscripts were either burnt or torn to pieces, and of the whole collection scarcely
three hundred are now known to exist. Several of these are still preserved in the
imperial library of Vienna, but of their original splendour little remains. The public
library at Stuttgart also possesses a manuscript St. Austin on the Psalms, covered with
leather, and the original ornaments of the time of Corvinus, if not belonging to his
library. It is much faded, but the fore edges preserve their former gilt stamped
ornaments.5 These include the well-known badges of Corvinus — the dragon, barrel, etc.
There are also in the public library of Brussels two magnificent manuscripts, which
once graced this library. The first is a Latin " Evangelistarium," written in letters of
gold upon the most beautiful vellum, and not inaptly called The Golden Book. It
had become the property of Philip II. of Spain, who kept it in the Escurial Library
under lock and key ; and it is said to have been formerly shown to strangers with great
ceremony and by torchlight ! However this may be, " 'tis a precious morceau, and of
finished execution."0 Gibbon awards nearly the same honour to a copy. of the Pandects
of Justinian, taken at Pisa, in the year 1406, by the Florentines, and still preserved as
a relic in the ancient palace of the republic. According to Brenckman, it was new-

1 Dibdin's "Bib. Tour," 3 vols. 4 Warton, iii. 243.

- Warton's " English Poetry," iii. 243. 3 Dibdin's "Bib. Tour," ii. 34.

3 Dibdin's •" Bib. Dec," ii. 461. 6 Ibid., " Bib. Dec," iii. 157.

PATRONS OF LITERATURE. 117

bound in purple, deposited in a rich casket, and shown to curious travellers by the monks
and magistrates bare-headed and with lighted tapers.1

An attempt is now (1893) being made to collect the volumes remaining from the
famous library of Corvinus for the public library at Prague ; and many volumes still
retaining their handsome leather covers, blind-tooled or gilt, have been recovered.

While the art thus flourished in Hungary, it was equally successful in Italy, and
found in those distinguished patrons of literature, the Medici family, steady supporters
and liberal aid. The specimens of binding still existing show that no expense was
spared by the Italians of the fifteenth century in the embellishment of their books. The
manuscripts, etc., collected by Piero de Medici (1464 — 1469), are highly ornamented with
miniatures, gilding, and other decorations, and are distinguished by the fleur-de-lis.
Such as were acquired by Lorenzo (1469 — 1492), called the father of literature, are also
finished with great attention to elegance. The)- are not only stamped with the
Medicean arms, but with a laurel branch, in allusion to his name, and the motto
" Semper." 2

In Western Europe at the beginning of the fifteenth century Philip the Good,
Duke of Burgundy, eclipsed all other patrons of literature. At Bruges, where he
kept his court, he gave continual employment to a crowd of authors, translators,
copyists, illuminators, and, we may suppose, bookbinders, who enriched his library
with their best productions, and did not forget to sing the praises of their generous
patron.3 In the account which M. Barrois gives of the library of this prince, he
enumerates nearly two thousand works, the greater part being magnificent folios on
vellum, beautifully illuminated and bound in velvet, satin, or damask, studded with gems,
and closed by gold clasps, jewelled and chased. Many of these books are still preserved
in the royal library at Brussels.

Louis de Bruges, Seigneur de la Gruthuyse, a nobleman who received Edward IV.
of England when he sought refuge in Flanders from the Lancastrians, possessed a
library scarcely inferior to that of the Duke of Burgundy, and employed artists at
Bruges and Ghent to write, illuminate, and bind his books.

Henry VI. of England encouraged literature, and had a valuable library, of which
some volumes are to this day in the royal collection at the British Museum. The
Duke of Bedford and Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, were both book-collectors and
patrons of literature. One or two folios bearing the signature of the latter nobleman —
" Cest a moy Homfrey." — are preserved in the Bodleian Library.

To the encouragement of these princes and nobles the great increase in the number
of books and the improvement in the manner of binding was in a measure due. Costly
bindings adorned with silver, gold, and jewels were by no means rare even in the
sixteenth century, when princes and churchmen vied with one another in the splendour
of their books. Thus, for instance, Cardinal Grimani had his Breviary bound in
crimson velvet, the greater part of which was concealed by most elaborate mounts,

1 Gibbon's " Rome,'' v. 381. - Roscoers " Lorenzo de Medici," ii. 59.

3 W. Blades, "William Caxton," 8vo edition, 1882.

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

clasps, corner-pieces, and borders of solid gold of exquisite workmanship, and
decorated with a medallion portrait of the cardinal himself. Albert of Brandenburg
caused a Book of Hours to be decorated with clasps and mounts of pure gold.
Bindings rich with embossed and chased gold, studded with precious gems, were
made to enshrine the costly manuscripts of Giulio Clovio and other famous miniaturists
of the sixteenth-century period of decadence.1

To these liberal patrons of literature may be added many of the nobles and clergy

of Italy in the sixteenth century, who were profuse
in their- love of embellishment, but none more so
than the celebrated Cardinal Mazarin. His library
in his palace on the Quirinal hill at Rome consisted
of five thousand well-selected volumes, " bound by
artists who came express from Pan's."2 Angelus
Roccha, in his appendix to the " Biblia Apostolica
Vaticani" (1599), speaking of the library of Car-
dinal Launcellot, says, it was " celebrated as well
on account of the quantity of books (for there
are seven thousand volumes) as for the beautiful
binding, their admirable order, and magnificent
ornaments." Cardinal Bonelli's library was also
celebrated as being " illustrious for the richest
bindings of books." 3

The libraries of Germany are particularly rich
in bindings of almost every age and description.
Some specimens have been referred to in a previous
chapter, and others, of which we shall hereafter
speak, attest the patronage bestowed on the art.
But though we have no names on record as being
par excellence lovers of book embellishment, the
numerous specimens of early binding still pre-
served in Austria, Bavaria, etc., sufficiently attest a
long list of patrons in the successive rulers of the
various kingdoms and states. In the imperial
library of Vienna, an early specimen exists of a fine " Evangelistarium." The binding
is of the time of Frederick III. (the middle of the fourteenth century). The ornaments
consist of a lion's head in the centre of the board surrounded by golden rays, and having
a lion's head in each corner of the square. An arabesque border surrounds the whole,
giving an effect both splendid and tasteful.4 Other specimens might be given to a great
extent, both in this and the emperor's private library, in all the varieties of silver, velvet,
silk, calf, and vellum.

WROUGHT SILVER BINDING.

{From the original, South Kensington Museum,

Professor J. H. Middleton, "Illumination."
Dibdin's "Bib, Dec," ii. 495.

Ibid., 492.

Dibden's " Bib. Tour," iii. 274.

SILVER BOOKBINDING.

"9

A manuscript office of the Virgin, in the public library at Munich, bears witness to
the custom of binding books in silver, with coloured inlaid ornaments, up to the year 1 574,
which date it bears. This library contains also four splendid folio volumes, the text of
the " Seven Penitential Psalms," which exhibit extraordinary proof of the skill of the
writer, musician, painter, and bookbinder. Of each of these artists there is a portrait
The name of the binder is Gaspar Ritter. The books are bound in red morocco,
variegated with colours and secured with clasps. Everything about them is square, firm

SILVER BINDING PIERCED AND ENGRAVED, GERMAN, EARLY EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

(From the original at South Kensington Museum.)

and complete, and stamps Gaspar Ritter as one of the most skilful artists of the
sixteenth century.1 The practice of placing devotional books in bindings of wrought
silver was continued in Germany and Holland till the eighteenth century.

In the public libraries of Augsburg, Stuttgart, Landshut, etc., similar specimens,
clothed in every variety of material, might be adduced in further illustration. In the
University library at Leyden, celebrated throughout Europe, most of the books are
bound in fine white vellum, and decorated with considerable taste and splendour.2

1 Dibdin's "Bib. Tour," iii. 274.

- Savage's " Librarian," :

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

LEATHER BOOKBINDING.

^N a former chapter the subject of leather bookbinding has been briefly
referred to. A few examples have been given of English leather binding
supposed to have been executed in the twelfth or early thirteenth century
by craftsmen living in Winchester, London, and other large towns. This
work, it has been said, will compare favourably with • bindings known to have been
made in the abbeys of Durham and Hyde (Winchester). We now take up the history
where it was left at the end of chapter ix., and proceed to trace the development
of the art on the continent of Europe.

From the twelfth to the end of the sixteenth century we have in England as
well as on the Continent, an almost unbroken series of bindings in stamped leather,
proving the continuity of the art and exhibiting all the peculiarities of style which
marked the different schools and periods. For fully three centuries after the magnifi-
cent bindings of Bishop Pudsey's books were made at Durham, we find some of the
twelfth-century stamps, or imitations of them, in use both in England and on the
Continent ; but stamped bindings of the thirteenth century are rare. In the fourteenth
century it was still usual to bind books in ornamented leather, and stamps of a larger
size began to make their appearance on the Continent ; but in this country the art
had almost died out, owing, doubtless, to the decline of scholastic literature and the
demoralisation of the clergy, who were ceasing to be an intellectual class. The
testimony of Poggio, an Italian traveller who visited England twenty years after
Chaucer's death, strongly supports this view. The monasteries were no longer the
seats of learning. " I found in them," said Poggio, " men given up to sensuality in
abundance, but very few lovers of learning, and those of a barbarous sort, skilled more
in quibbles and sophisms than in literature." '

On the Continent, however, the spirit of the revival of learning began to show
itself, and its workings may be seen in isolated works of art, firstlings of the Renaissance.
One of the earliest examples of a binding ornamented with panel-stamps may be seen
upon a volume in the archives at Louvain ; it is said to be the work of Lambertus de
Insula, and to date from the year 1367. From that time stamped bindings began
to increase, and in the first half of the fifteenth century they became numerous.
The most important leather bindings of this period were made in France, the Low
Countries, and Germany. Italy and Spain, too, attained a high degree of excellence
in some kinds of leather work ; in fact, stamped-leather bindings of the thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries have been found throughout Europe.

If the chief end of binding a book be the preservation of it, mediaeval binders
certainly attained that end, for many a book bound from four to six hundred years

1 J. R. Green, " A Short History of the English People," p. 572.

LEATHER BOOKBINDING, ENGLISH GUILDS.

ago is as good now, for all practical purposes, as it was on the day that it left the
hands of the binder. Not only do these old bindings excel in durability : they are also
true works of art, exhibiting decoration in a most appropriate and attractive form.

In Germany and the Netherlands the development was slow, but the progression
continued during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In Italy at first the leather-
workers imitated Arabian models, but after a time the influence of German, especially
of Swabian, binders made itself felt there until after the sixteenth century, when
Oriental designs again prevailed. In Spain the Germans introduced their system of
ornamentation, which, however, was quickly modified by the adoption of Moorish
details. In France the art was influenced to a great extent by both Germans and
Netherlanders, while in our own country it suffered a process of denationalisation so

1 1 1 1 1

PI

IDE

1 1

_

II 1 1 1 1 1 II

FIG. I. EARLY ENGLISH PLA

FIG. 2. NETHERLANDISH PLAN OF ARRANGEMENT.

complete that it cannot be said yet to have recovered the position it held at the end
of the twelfth century.1

It is important to know something of the plan or manner of arranging ornamental
stampings adopted by artists in leather in several of the European countries ; we have
therefore reproduced here four diagrams, which show at a glance the four chief methods
of arranging the stamps.

Fig. I shows the old English system, and is copied from a Durham book.

Fig. 2 is the Netherlandish system, where the sides were generally impressed with
one or more panel-stamps, the spaces between the two stamps being filled up with
either a series of small stamps or a band. The older French plan was to adorn the
field with vertical rows of stamps, or with powderings enclosed within one or more
borders. The French panel-stamps were often divided into four compartments by a
vertical and a horizontal line intersecting in the centre.

1 Mr, W. H. James Weale, Jozirnal of the Society of Arts, March ist, 1889.

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Fig. 3- — The usual German plan was a framework of intersecting vertical and
horizontal bands (produced by a roller), the field within being divided by ruled diagonal
lines into numerous lozenge-shaped compartments ; these, and oftentimes the spaces
between the framework and the edge of the cover, were impressed with stamps.

Fig- 4- — Many English binders adopted the German plan ; some modified it by
dividing the field into four triangular compartments, sometimes left plain, sometimes
ornamented with small dies.

All these plans were subject to modification.

The tools employed to ornament leather bindings were, so far as we know, of
two kinds : —

I. The stamp or die, which was of small size originally, but in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries assumed proportions nearly as large as the side of an octavo volume.

' —

— J -

Ml

i

FIG. •?. — GERMAN PLAN.

FIG. 4. ENGLISH ADAPTATION OF GERMAN PLAN.

2. The roll, a cylinder mounted on a handle so as to allow it to revolve.

This tool was much used in the sixteenth century. It may have been suggested by
the repetition of small stamps placed in juxtaposition. The designs upon rolls were at
first meritorious, but they gradually degenerated, and at length became commonplace.

As to the material of which stamps and rolls were made, there is no doubt that the
small dies were usually of brass or latten ; the rolls also were of the same material.
Large panel-stamps appear to have been engraved on metal, but in some instances these
were of wood ; ancient stamps both of wood and metal are extant. In the engraving
of a sixteenth-century binding shop three rolls are represented in a rack upon the
wall by the window. The length of the handle enabled the binder to use considerable
pressure in applying the tool.

At the British Museum may be seen several small brass dies, supposed to have been
used by bookbinders and certainly intended for leather work. Oriental binders made

LEATHER BOOKBINDING, ENGLISH GUILDS.

123

use of similar brass dies, which differ from the tools used by modern bookbinders in that
they are cut, like a seal, in intaglio, producing an impres-
sion in relief. Some of the leather-workers at Walsall, in
Staffordshire, to this day employ stamps, cut in the ancient
manner, for the adornment of the backs of stable-brushes
and other ordinary leather articles. We have before us a
medallion of St. George and the Dragon made by Messrs.
Hawley and Smith, of Walsall, for the back of a stable-brush.
It is an exceedingly effective piece of work, and modern
binders would do well to adopt this cheap and excellent
method of decorating the sides of leather-bound books.

At Antwerp, in the Plantin Museum, the binding tools,
including stamps and rolls, used by the famous sixteenth-
century printer Christopher Plantin, are carefully preserved.

The process of stamping was much aided by the in-
vention of the screw-press, which enabled the workman to
apply a steady and long-continued pressure ; but in earlier
times, when small dies or punches alone were used, the
force was simply applied by a blow from a hammer.1

When books began to be issued from the newly established printing-presses an
impetus was given to the trade of the bookbinder, and then arose a distinction which has
remained to this day — i.e., TRADE BINDINGS and SPECIAL BINDINGS. The greater
number of bindings we have to describe in this chapter may be classed under the former
head. The special bindings, made for great collectors or for presentation purposes, are
quite distinct in style from the stamped-leather bindings common all over Europe at

BINDERS SHOP, FROM A SIXTEENTH-
CENTURY " BOOK OF TRADES."

I

BOOKBINDERS TOOL AND IMPRESSION, SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

{From the original at the British Museum.)

the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century. At that period binders

began to stamp their names in full upon the sides of bindings, or to impress upon the

1 Professor J. H. Middleton, "Illumination," 1892.

124 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

leather a rebus, trade-mark, or initials, and in some instances their own portraits. Thus
the panel-stamps of the early printers and bookbinders form an interesting series of
designs illustrating the development of art step by step from the purest Gothic to the
most debased form of the Renaissance. In the Low Countries these designs were
the binders' property, being recognised and protected as much as the nobleman's coat-
of-arms or the merchant's mark. In England, however, where the binders' guilds
were not of much importance, this was apparently not the case ; but here, and on
the Continent, trade-marks or ciphers were protected against piracy.1

In Germany, the Netherlands, and France there were guilds of bookbinders
constantly training fresh workmen in the exercise of their craft, improving the taste
and skill of the workmen, and raising the standard of their work. In England in the
fifteenth century there were guilds or associations of stationers or bookbinders, but
nevertheless the influence of the foreign craft associations seems to have made itself felt
in this country, probably because the English guilds had less power to enforce their rules.

Owing to the fashion for beautiful books which arose in the fifteenth century and
spread through Italy, Germany, France, Burgundy, the Netherlands, and England, the
book trade became an important industry, employing artists and workmen of several
kinds. In no former age had finer copies of books been made ; in none had so many
been transcribed. This increased demand for their production caused the process of
copying and illuminating manuscripts to be transferred from the scriptoria of the
religious houses into the hands of trade-guilds, like the Guild of St. John at Bruges or
the Brothers of the Pen at Brussels.2 To ensure rapidity as well as excellence of work-
manship, division of labour was effected to a large extent. Thus it happened that in
many cities trade-guilds were founded for the purpose of protecting and encouraging
the craft.

At Bruges, in the year 1454, a charter was granted to the "Guild of St. John the
Evangelist"; St. John being accounted the patron saint of scribes, was for that
reason chosen the patron of the new company of craftsmen. The register of the
guild is still preserved, and in it may be read the names of the brethren and sisters
classed under the different branches of the industry in which they were employed.
These were booksellers, printsellers, painters, painters of vignettes, scriveners, and
copyists of books, illuminators, printers, whether from blocks or types, bookbinders,
curriers, cloth-shearers, parchment and vellum makers, boss carvers, letter engravers,
and figure engravers.3 Similar corporations existed in other cities of the Low Countries.
At Antwerp the Guild of St. Luke was founded before 1450, and amongst its members
included various craftsmen similar to those of the Guild of St. John at Bruges and
" Les Freres de la Plume" at Brussels. All the early Flemish printers whose names
are now famous belonged to one or other of these trade associations, and appear to
have derived much benefit from their guilds.

1 Mr. W. H. James Weale, Letters to The BooJibindei*, November 1888.

2 J. R. Green, "A Short History of the English People," p. 574.

3 W. Blades, "William Caxton," edition 1883, p, 37.

LEATHER BINDINGS, ENGLISH GUILDS. 125

Half a century before the incorporation of the Guild of St. John at Bruges, the
_ , list of craft-guilds of London included one specially devoted to

<£nglanD. bookbinders.

Trade Guilds and The London trade associations are first mentioned during the

Early Bookbinders. . &

reign of Henry I. (1100—1135), about fifty years after the first
appearance of a guild merchant in the city.1 At first the guilds included only artisans
of a single trade, but in course of time several trades were included in one guild, and
still later some of these trades were separated and in their turn became independent
societies. In the fourteenth century we find leather-sellers, pouchmakers, cordwainers,
and scriveners formed into organised trade associations. At the commencement of the
fifteenth century there was in London a guild of text-writers and bookbinders.

On July 1 2th, 1403, a petition was presented to the mayor and aldermen of
London by the " craft of writers of text letter, those commonly called ' limners,' and
other good folks, citizens of London, who were wont to bind and sell books." The
petition contains several interesting points, notably the reference to the ordinance as
to the election of wardens of the guild. (See Appendix A.) The ordinance provided
that two wardens should be elected, " the one be a lymenour, the other a text-writer,"
showing that even at that time the two crafts were becoming independent, and that
the bookbinders were subordinate. Nineteen years later, in 1422 (9 Henry V.), it
would appear from the list of London crafts and mysteries preserved at Brewers'
Hall that the text-writers and the bookbinders were enrolled in separate guilds, and
of sufficient importance to induce the clerk of the Brewers' Company to include them
in a list of those guilds which, being without halls of their own, would be probable
hirers of Brewers' Hall on festive occasions. The " bokebynders " appear as the
eighty-fifth of the hundred and twelve guilds. It is a significant fact that in the
list of companies preserved in the records of the Pewterers' Company in 1488 neither
bookbinders nor text-writers are mentioned ; and it seems probable that these two
trade companies had suffered considerably by the influx of Continental stationers
and the superior organisation of the craft-guilds to which these belonged. The intro-
duction of printed books sealed the fate of the text-writers and limners ; the bookbinders
inevitably would suffer with them for a time. As a matter of fact, the trade was so
depressed in the reign of Henry VIII. as to induce Parliament to pass an act for its
special protection, and aliens were forbidden to compete with English bookbinders.2

Among the few names of London binders of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
now known, we must first mention that of Nicholas le Bokbindere, living in the parish
of St. Augustine, near St. Paul's Gate. By his will, proved A.D. 1305-6, he directs that
his tenement near the gate shall be sold, and Amicia his wife shall have five marks out
of the proceeds for her maintenance.3 This record is most interesting, since it shows

1 C. Gross, " The Guild Merchant."

2 Riley's " Memorials of London," p. 89.

3 " Calendar of Wills Proved and Enrolled in the Court of Hustings, London, A.D. 1258 — 1688,"
Part I., p. 175.

i26 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

that Nicholas was carrying on his business under the shadow of the great cathedral in
the thirteenth century, and that at that early date the purlieus of St. Paul's were
tenanted by craftsmen engaged in the making and binding of books. A few years
later, in A.D. 131 1, it is recorded that a burglary was committed at the house of
" Dionisia le Bokebyndere in Fletestrete, in the suburbs of London," 1 by certain
Welshmen, members of the household of Edward II. Dionisia is the earliest lady
bookbinder with whose name we are acquainted. It will probably be a matter of
surprise to the lady bookbinders of the nineteenth century to find that in the Middle
Ages their occupation was not confined to the sterner sex. Dionisia's name would
seem to imply that she Was a foreigner ; indeed, it is surprising how many foreign
bookbinders have found their way to this country from the Middle Ages down to
modern times.

In 1 32 1 payment was made " to William the bookbinder, ot London, for binding
and newly repairing the book of Domesday, in which is contained the counties of Essex,
Norfolk, and Suffolk, and for his stipend, costs, and labour, received the money the fifth
day of December by his own hands, y. 4^." 2 This entry refers to the binding of the
smaller of the two volumes of Domesday, possibly to the one removed when the book
was at the Chapter House, Westminster, and which is still preserved at the Record
Office ; but if so, it must have been repaired at a subsequent date.

In 1367 John Bokbyndere the elder appears as a witness to two deeds 3 ; and in 1417
Roger Dunse, " bokebyndere," is mentioned as living in London.4

In 1379, the third year of the reign of Richard II., a grant of a house in Aldersgate
was made to Stephen Vant, bookbynnder, and others, presumably masters and wardens
of the Guild of SS. Fabian and Sebastian, Aldersgate.5 About a century later William
Caxton was a member of the " Fraternity or Guild of our Blessed Lady Assumption."
From the little that is known about these two guilds it is presumed that they were of a
religious and social, rather than of a trade character. But since in those days men
following the same trades usually congregated together in the same quarters of the city,
it is probable that the Guild of SS. Fabian and Sebastian contained more than one
bookbinder amongst its members.

In the reign of Edward IV. (1461 — 1483) Piers Banduyn appears from the Royal
Wardrobe accounts to have been the Court bookbinder ; from the materials he used and
the amounts paid to him for work done for the king, his bindings must have been
exceedingly sumptuous.0

1 Riley's "Memorials of London," p. 89.

2 "Issues of the Exchequer" (Pell Records), p. 135.

3 Riley, pp. 333, 334.
1 Ibid., p. xxxii.

6 Early English Text Society, No. 40, 2nd part.

6 The editor desires to acknowledge the kind assistance he has received from Mr. E. M. Borrajo,
who most generously placed at his disposal many references to London guilds and early bookbinders.

BINDING OF A GERMAN BIBLE, NOW IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM, NUREMBERG, LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

128 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

In Germany, in the fifteenth century, besides many good bookbinders in the
g. monasteries, we may mention John Richenbach, of Geislingen, whose

"' work may be recognised by stamps, giving his name in full and
sometimes that of the person for whom the book was bound. These bindings are
usually of pig-skin, a favourite material with German binders. Some examples are
dated as early as 1467, and the latest yet found bears date 1475. The earliest dated
binding of German origin is perhaps that of the Eggesteyn 41 -line Bible in the
University Library, Cambridge. The date 1464 is impressed upon the metal bosses
at the corners. Johannes Fogel used some delicate stamps, and is said to have bound a
copy of the Mazarine Bible now in Eton College Library and another copy of the
same book recently sold in New York. l Antony Koburger, of Nuremberg, bound his
printed books in an elaborate and distinct manner. He abandoned the use of small
dies, and by means of larger tools covered the sides of his books with handsome
stampings. He usually stamped the title of the book in gold letters upon the top of
the obverse cover. The names of some other German printers are also occasionally
found upon their bindings, as for instance Amerboch, Ambrose, Keller, and Zeiner.

In the British Museum, in a case in the King's Library, may be seen a stoutly
bound volume with a chain still attached to it. This is a representative example of
German fifteenth-century binding. The numerous small dies are well designed and
applied. They represent a rose, an eagle, fleur-de-lis, a heart pierced by an arrow, etc.,
and in a small scroll the name of the binder, Conradus de Argentina. The book upon
which this name appears was printed at Venice by Vindelinus de Spira in 147 1, but
Conradus de Argentina seems to have been a German, Argentina being the ancient
name of Strassburg. Veldener, another German, is supposed to have bound books after
this manner. The name Nicolaus Ghaunt is sometimes found upon the bindings of
German or Netherlandish books printed late in the fifteenth century. An interesting
example of the union of two systems of ornamenting leather may be seen upon the
cover of the British Museum copy of Rainerius de Pisis' " Pantheologia," printed by
Bertholdus at Basle about 1475. The panel in the centre is of hand-wrought leather,
the design being heraldic, the shield bearing a pair of compasses extended. The border
surrounding the panel is ornamented with stampings produced by means of small
dies, after the German method.

In Italy the ordinary leather bindings of this period were frequently adorned with

o,. , beautiful and intricate interlaced patterns, sometimes ornamented

**' "' with small circles or dots of gold and colour, but generally plain :

they are probably of Saracenic origin. An excellent example may be seen among

Sir Kenelm Digby's books at the Bodleian, Oxford. Italian books have a further

1 Mr. E. Gordon Duff ("Burlington Fine Art Club, Catalogue of Bookbindings"), to whose
researches, as embodied in the introduction to that catalogue, the editor gratefully acknowledges
himself indebted.

BINDING OF POSTILLA THOME DE AQUINO IN JOB, C. FYNER, ESSLINGEN 1474, CENTRAL PANEL HAND-WROUGHT,

BORDER STAMPED.

{From the original in the British Museum.)

13°

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

peculiarity, the binders putting four clasps on a binding instead of two, as was the
custom in most European countries. The extra clasps were placed at the top and
bottom of the book. When the bindings were of parchment, tags of leather served
the purpose of clasps. A Lucian printed and bound in Venice by Aldus in 1522,
and now in the Editor's collection, has four sets of leather tags according to the Italian
manner.

Another peculiarity, which is said to have been brought from the East after the fall
of Constantinople in 1453, is the running of a groove down the edge of the cover.

It was not till the introduction of gold-tooling
that Italian binding made any perceptible differ-
ence to French or English art, and its only reflex
on stamped binding would seem to be on a few
medallions and some arabesque borders chiefly of
German origin.

In the Netherlands, where, as we have seen,
fir fan the trade was protected by

Bet&erlantig.

Gtuenenbalr-

guilds and encouraged by the
patronage of the nobles, book-
binding attained a high degree of excellence. The
printers who migrated from Germany and those
who first established presses in the Netherlands
were either binders themselves, or were assisted
by binders. By whom, when, and where the large
panel stamps afterwards so extensively used were
invented, is not known, but they appear about the
middle of the fourteenth century ; and a century
later, when printed books of small size began to
be issued, the advantage of this ready manner of
ornamenting a cover with one, or at most two
stamps was recognised, and for a time came into
general use in the Netherlands, France, and England.
Now arose a number of peripatetic stationers and bookbinders, who wandered from
the Low Countries, Rhenish towns, France, especially from Normandy and Paris, to
England. These stationers, who combined the craft of bookbinding with the trade of
bookselling, brought with them their own stamps. It is on this account that in
England so many varieties of foreign stamped-leather bindings are found.

In most great Continental towns dies of a distinctive kind were used. At Ghent
some beautiful panel stamps were made, the earliest now extant dating probably about
the latter half of the fifteenth century. Antwerp, Louvain, and Bruges each had a variety
of beautiful stamps. At first the hand-worked stampings of the period were imitated
on metal dies of large size, but after a time the designs cut upon these dies assumed a

NETHERLANDISH BINDING, LATE FIFTEENTH
OR EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

ITALIAN, NETHERLANDISH, AND FRENCH BINDINGS. 131

distinct character. In later Netherlandish stamps the ornamentation often consists of
spiral foliage, containing birds and beasts, while round the edge runs a motto or text
and sometimes the binder's name, a laudable practice more general in the Netherlands
than elsewhere. Thus on a well-designed stamp of this kind we find the name of
Ludovicus Bloc :—

" Jluboptcue Q0foc 06 faubcm (Xtieti fiBrum fiunc recfe ftgatn."
On a similar panel are the words : —

" C>6 faubcm (tfirteft (June ftfirum rcefc ftgavif ^ofiannce Q0offcaeref."
In the centre of another small panel runs the motto : —

" jfacoB tffuminafor me fecit."
And on another : —

" jJocoBue fiftua QOincentii tffumtnaforte."

There is an example of this in the " Douce Scrapbook " at the Bodleian Library.
Another binding perpetuates the name of Johannes Guilebert. A book in the before-
named collection has this inscription on the binding : —

" 30r'6 oe <2>at>crc me figatJtf tn ganbat>o omnee eandi, angefi, ct arcljangcft bet otatc pro nofits."
Several members of the family of Gavere have perpetuated their names in this manner.
A binding in the library of Westminster Abbey is adorned with a well-designed stamp,
with a lozenge-shaped compartment in the centre, containing a rampant lion, crowned,
and in the four triangular compartments about it as many small dragons, and in the
border the motto : —

" jjjoljannce be QSoubtr Jbirtrcrpte me fecit."

Another example is surrounded by the ejaculation : —

" Oetenbe noBta, ©omtnc, QTUecncorbiam tuam, ct eatutatc tuum btx noBt'e."
Between the panels are two oblong stamps curiously ornamented with the representa-
tions of human figures fastened together by the neck. A curious legend is that used
by Petrus Elscnus : —

" 3« eubore vultue tui vtecme pane fuo per (pcfrum (Bfeenum."
And scarcely less so : — ■

" (Brerce etubtum quamvte pcrcepcris artem QTlarftnue QJufcantue."
And the variation : —

" ©tacerc ne ccseeo cura eaptenfia creectt QTUrftnua (pufcantue."
Netherlandish pictorial stamps of great merit are occasionally found. A good
example occurs on a little volume printed in Paris by Jean Petit. On one side is a
panel representing the Adoration of the Magi and the trade-mark and initials B. K. ;
on the other side is a beautiful panel of the Annunciation. Scarcely less beautiful
are the pair of panels bearing the name of Brother John de Weesalia ; the one represents
the entry into Jerusalem, the other the Annunciation. The legend reads : —

" prater 2°$annce 'c (H)eeeafta 06 faubem rpriefi ct (JTUfrte cjuer fifirum $unc recte ftgatnf."

STAMPED LEATHER BINDING, FRENCH DESIGN, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

(From the original in the library of Worcester Cathedral.)

ITALIAN, NETHERLANDISH, AND FRENCH BINDINGS.

133

Some binders made use of old legends or the traditions of the places where they dwelt,
ornamenting their panel stamps with the mystic hunt of the unicorn, or the figure of the
Maid of Ghent.

In France very many panel stamps of great beauty were used ; these are so

numerous that we can here only attempt to describe a few of the

jriclll t. best-known examples.

A favourite way of disposing the subjects on
a panel was to divide the stamp into four equal
compartments by two intersecting lines, one drawn
across the panel from top to bottom, the other from
side to side ; in each compartment the figure of
a saint was represented. Sometimes the binder
placed his name at the foot of the panel, some-
times his initials on a shield in the centre.

Frequently the devotional pictures and curi-
ously engraved borders from Books of Hours were
copied by the bookbinder to adorn the leather
covers of his bindings. One of the best instances
of the application of the same design to book illus-
tration and to bookbinding may be seen in the
accompanying engraving of a binding in Worcester
Cathedral Library. The central compartment
represents King David praying, the Almighty ap-
pearing to him in clouds of glory. Both these
subjects occur on other bindings, each in a separate
compartment of a large stamp. The border around
this subject is copied from the engraved border of
a Book of Hours printed by Thielman Kerver,
circa 1525, but the design is probably earlier, and
seems to have been taken from an illuminated
manuscript, and, perhaps, originally engraved on
metal by Pigouchet or one of his associates. The
stamp measures 6J by 4 inches.

Two other large panel-stamps were used by
J. Norins, whose name in full, " Jehan Norins,"
appears at the foot of an effective design of acorns,
surrounded by an ornamental border on a stamp of small dimensions. One represents
the vision of the Emperor Augustus (ara ccsli), and the other a figure of St. Bernard
and a border containing the sibyls. At the foot of the first panel are the binder's
initials I. N., which for many years have been misread I. H., as may be seen from the
accompanying engraving.

FRENCH PANEL-STAMP, EARLY SIXTEENTH
CENTURY.

134

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Alexandre Alyat, a Paris stationer about 1 500, used a large stamp with a figure
of Christ and the emblems of the Passion ; Andre Boule signed his name in full
beneath two large panels, one of the Crucifixion, the other of the martyrdom of St.
Sebastian ; Guillaume and Hermon Le Fevre also used panels depicting the latter
subject, Jehan Dupin and several others a panel with four saints ; P. Gerard used a
representation of the Crucifixion ; and Edmond Bayeux, Theodore Richard, Andre
Boule, and Hermon Le Fevre also used large pictorial stamps.

In Normandy the binders of Caen and Rouen used stamps resembling those
supposed to have been made in England, but owing to the close trade relationship
between the stationers of those towns and this country, it is impossible at present to
discover whether the stamps bearing distinctive English designs were produced by
English or Norman workmen. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Denis Roce, of
Rouen, who used a panel with the figures of four saints, did not stamp his name in
full upon his bindings. We have elsewhere mentioned Jehan Moulin, of Rouen,
and R. Mace. We will conclude this chapter with the names of J. Richard and
Jean Huvin, whose Rouen bindings, with panels of St. Nicholas and St. Michael, are
of ereat merit.

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CHAPTER XI.1

ENGLISH STAMP ED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING, FIFTEENTH AND
SIXTEENTH CENTURIES.

NEW era in the history of bookbinding in England commenced in
the year 1476, when William Caxton, returning from Bruges, settled
in the Almonry at Westminster, and there set up the first printing-
press used in this country. Caxton is supposed to have carried with
him from Bruges a press and types ; he also appears to have brought
bookbinding tools, and possibly bookbinders as well. In 1477 his
press was fully established ; and he issued " The Dictes and Sayings
of the Philosophers," the first book printed in England which bears a plain statement
of the place and time of its execution. He was the first of a long line of great English
printers who carried on the business of binding with the trade of printing.

Unfortunately, almost all the books issued from Caxton's press (1477 — 1491) which
have come down to our time have been rebound. Some few, however, are still in their
original bindings of brown stamped leather. Some bibliographers have supposed that
Caxton occasionally bound his books in vellum. An example of a vellum binding
may be seen on the Bodleian copy of " The Cordyale," printed by Caxton in 1479.
The marks of the rivets whereby the book was secured to a chain are visible upon
this binding. Mr. W. Blades, Caxton's biographer, was of opinion that the Bodleian
copies of " The Art and Craft" (1491) and " The Game and Play of the Chess " (1481)
still retained their original vellum bindings ; 2 but this is doubtful since vellum bindings
were not used in this country till long after Caxton's time.

The ornament usually found upon genuine specimens of Caxton's binding is
planned in the German or Netherlandish manner. An example of this may be
seen on the original cover of the copy of " Boecius de Consolacione Philosophic,"

1 The head-piece represents a portion of a roll-border, sometimes used in conjunction with
Julian Notary's panel-stamps. The initials L.R. and R.L. are probably those of the binder for whom
the roll was made.

8 W. Blades, "William Caxton," edition 1882, p. 133.

135

136 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

printed by Caxton in 1479 and discovered by William Blades in the old grammar-
school at St. Albans in the year 1858. The boards of this binding consisted of a pad
composed of sheets of printed paper, remarkable as the largest " find " of printed
fragments from Caxton's press. The two covers yielded no less than fifty-six half-
sheets of printed paper, proving the existence of three works from Caxton's press quite
unknown before.1 The ornament on this binding is of the plainest, consisting only of
straight lines produced by means of a plain roll, leaving three parallel depressed lines.
The back has four bands, and the same tool is used upon it as upon the sides. At
half an inch from the edges, and parallel to them, lines are ruled so as to intersect
one another at the corners ; at the top and bottom other lines parallel to the first are
placed, but at less than an inch apart ; within the space thus enclosed is a lattice-work
of lines forming diamond-shaped compartments. No stampings adorn this cover.

The binding of the British Museum copy of the second edition of the " Festiall " is
similar in plan to that of the St. Albans " Boecius," but with the addition of stampings,
representing a dragon and a conventional flower. The binding of the " Small Black
Book of the Exchequer " at the Record Office, though not quite so formal in arrange-
ment, is supposed to have issued from Caxton's bindery, since it is decorated with three
of the four stamps known to have been used by our first printer.

The stamps usually found upon Caxton's bindings are as follows :—

1. A lozenge-shaped stamp, an inch square, with the representation of a gryphon.

2. A small lozenge -shaped stamp, about half an inch square, with a conventional
flower.

3. A triangular-shaped stamp with a two-legged winged dragon.

4. A square stamp, sides five-eighths of an inch, with a quatrefoil within a square,
flanked on each side by a demi-fleur-de-lis.

Stamp number three is always used as a border, the triangles being divided from
one another by a zigzag line.

It is probable that Caxton had more than four dies, but these only have yet been
identified. The first is of a common German type ; the third closely resembles a stamp
used by a contemporary binder at Bruges ; the fourth also is Flemish in character, and
may have been cut in Bruges. These stamps, at Caxton's death, passed to Wynkyn
de Worde, in whose possession they appear to have remained till after the commence-
ment of the sixteenth century, when some of them are believed to have been used by
Henry Jacobi, a foreign stationer.

(149 1 — 15 34.) Wynkyn de Worde was associated with Caxton, and at his master's
death (1491) carried on the business in the same house at Westminster, whence, at the
end of the year 1499, he removed to the sign of the Sun in Fleet Street. De Worde,
who was probably a native of the town of Worth, in the Dukedom of Lorraine, appears
to have entered Caxton's service at an early age, since he was still living in the year
1535. In 1491 he succeeded to the stock in trade of his master, but in after-years he
must have added considerably to his binding tools. He regularly employed a book-
1 W. Blades, " William Caxton," edition 1882, p. 215.

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING. 137

binder at home, and may also have sent some of his books to be bound elsewhere,
since in his will, dated June 5th, 1534, and proved on January 19th, 1535, he leaves
to " Nowel, the bookbinder, in Shoe Lane (Fleet Street), xx. s. in books ; and to
Alard, bookbinder, my servant, vj. 1. xiv. s. iiij.d." 1

Several of Wynkyn de Worde's bindings have been identified. In the library of
Worcester Cathedral may be seen a fine copy of " John Capgravius : Nova Legenda
Anglie." "In domo Winandi de Worde" (folio, London, 1516) (x. B. 9). This book
is in its original binding, which, however, has been rebacked. A frame of rolled borders
richly ornamented with fabulous beasts and conventional flowers encloses an oblong
panel divided by diagonal lines into lozenge-shaped compartments, each of which is
adorned with a lace-like stamp. Around the outer border stamps consisting of similar
ornaments divided in half are arranged. It is probable that this book has been in the
library for upwards of three and a half centuries, and it is possible that it was purchased
by the Prior of Worcester direct from the printer.

Prior William Moore, who always added a few books to the monastic library when
he took his periodical journey to London, has left this record in a list of books supplied
to him in the year 1 518-19: —

" Legenda s'tor' in Englisshe, vj. s." 2

Although the ornaments of this binding are Netherlandish in character, they are
in all likelihood of English workmanship done by the foreigners in De Worde's employ.
On some of his early bindings a small stamp of the royal arms appears.

In the flyleaves of one or two panel-stamped bindings, fragments of pages printed
by Wynkyn de Worde have been found, but these do not supply sufficient evidence to
identify the binding as his. It seems probable that he employed French or Netherlandish
binders, who used their own stamps.

De Worde also made use of Caxton's bookbinding tools till the beginning of the
sixteenth century, when they seem to have fallen into other hands. In his will, which
we have before mentioned, we find the name of J. Gaver, who was probably one of the
large family of Gavere, bookbinders in the Low Countries.3 It is probable that some
bindings bearing the initials I. G. are the work of this man.

(c. 1480.) John Lettou and William de Machlinia also were bookbinders as well
as printers ; but only two bindings can at present be assigned to them,4 and these
do not present any new characteristics. Lettou and Machlinia were the first printers
who settled in London ; they lived first in Holborn, near the Fleet Bridge, afterwards
by All Saints' Church ; they appear to have been in London in the year 1480, and
to have continued residing there for a few years. They were Germans, there is little
doubt ; and William came from the city of Mechlin, whence his name. John Lettou
is said at first to have assisted Machlinia, but afterwards he became his partner.

1 Ames' " Typographical Antiquities," i. 120.

2 Mr. J. Noake, "The Monastery and Cathedral of Worcester," p. 415.

3 Mr. E. Gordon Duff, " Burlington Fine Art Club Catalogue."

4 Ibid.

i38 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Richard III., while Duke of Gloucester, showed his love of literature by en-
couraging the work of Caxton. In after-years, during the one session of Parliament
(1484) of his brief reign, he gave further proof of his desire for the enlightenment of his
people in the provision that no statute should act as a hindrance " to any artificer or
merchant stranger, of what nation or country he be, for bringing into this realm or
selling by retail or otherwise of any manner of books, written or imprinted." (See
Appendix A.)

The result of this statute is seen in the constantly increasing influx of stationers
into this country from the Netherlands, the Rhenish towns, Normandy, and Paris,
commencing immediately after the enactment in 1483 and continuing with slight
interruption till the reign of Henry VIII. As before stated, these alien stationers,
who combined the craft of bookbinding with the trade of bookselling, at first paid
merely periodical visits to London, Oxford, Cambridge, York, and other important
towns, and especially places where fairs were held ; but soon, seeing that business
prospects were good, they took up their abode here. These men brought with them
their own stamps, and followed the traditions of the guild in which they had learned
their craft.1 This influx of Continental stationers flooded the English market with
foreign literature, and at the same time dealt a deathblow to our national style of
ornamenting bookbindings.

The success of Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field seems for a time to have paralysed
the efforts of the first English printers. After the year i486 all the English presses,
with the exception of Caxton's, had ceased working. The printers of Oxford, St.
Albans, and London had disappeared, and the divine art appeared in danger of
becoming extinct in this country. The general confusion which inevitably follows a
change of dynasty, coupled with the overthrow of some of the most powerful nobles,
patrons of literature, frightened the printers from our shores ; but in Henry VII, they
soon found a patron even more ready to assist them than the late king had been.
Engaged in schemes of foreign intrigue and struggling with dangers at home, Henry
could still find opportunity to assist, though he could not participate in, the revival
of letters, the great intellectual revolution effected in England during his reign.

A sign of the settlement of affairs and of the increasing demand for books
appeared in the year 1493, when Wynkyn de Worde, Caxton's successor at West-
minster, and Richard Pynson, Machlinia's successor at London, issued their first dated
books. In the same year two important foreign stationers, Frederic Egmondt and
Nicolas Lecompte, visited this country, and appear to have done a thriving trade in
books, chiefly liturgical, printed expressly for the English market in Italy and France.2

The Act of Richard III. remained in force till the twenty-fifth year of the reign
of Henry VIII. (1534), when it was repealed, and another Act passed forbidding any
but English subjects to sell bound books within the realm. Seeing that there were

1 W. H. James Weale, Journal of the Society of Arts, March 1st, 1889.

2 For a monograph on Frederic Egmondt see The Library, June 1890, p. 210, where Mr. E.
Gordon Duff has recorded the result of an extensive inquiry into the doings of this old bookseller.

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BIXDIXG, TRADE BrXDIXG.

139

but few books and printers (a term then including bookbinders) in England in the
time of Richard III., and that since that time "many of this realm, being the king's
natural subjects, have given themselves so diligently to learn and exercise the said
craft of printing that at this day there be within this realm a great number of cunning
and expert in the said science or craft of printing, as able to exercise the said craft
in all points, as any stranger in any other realm or country."

It is probable that there were other reasons than the one stated in the Act for
excluding foreigners and their books ; but be that as it may, the Act of the twenty-fifth
of Henry VIII. was not repealed till 1738, the twelfth of George II. The names of
many of the foreign stationers and bookbinders who obtained letters of denization
after the passing of the Act of 1534 have been
rescued from oblivion by the industry of Mr.
Weale. Several of these men had from time to
time visited England, but when the importation
of bound books was prohibited they seem to have
thought well to establish themselves here. In the
year 153 5 the following stationers obtained letters
of denization : Henry Harmanson, from Deventer,
in the diocese of Utrecht ; James van Gavere, from
the dominion of the emperor ; John Holibusche,
alias Holybushe, of London, born in Ruremond,
in the dominion of the emperor ; John Gachet, alias
Frencheman, of York, from Rouen ; Henry Brik-
man, from Culemborg ; Simon Martinssone, of
London, from Haarlem ; Gerard Pilgrome, of
Oxford, from Antwerp.

Books bound in England during the reign
of Henry VII. and the earlier part of that of
Henry VIII. were usually decorated according to
the German, Netherlandish, or Norman fashion, but
many survivals of the old English style may still
be seen. In Henry VIII. 's time, however, many

books of value, especially those for the king's library, were bound, not in the ordinary
stamped leather, but in gold-tooled bindings, in imitation of French or mixed French
or Italian designs. These latter are special bindings, and are described in another
chapter. When Caxton introduced printing into this country, panel stamps were, as we
have seen, much in fashion on the Continent ; but it is not known at what date they
were first brought to England. The earliest known example of an English panel stamp
is to be found on a loose binding in the library of Westminster Abbey. This binding,
which measures 8| by 6 inches, is of brown leather. There are five bands. On each
side there are two impressions of a panel stamp measuring 2\ by if inches. Between
the two panels is a band ornamented with five heart-shaped stamps ; around the panels are

PANEL-STAMP WITH ARMS OF EDWARD IV.

{From the unique original in the library
of Westminster Abbey.)

140

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

three borders, one without the other, the first is composed of diamond-shaped stamps
representing a fleur-de-lis ; the second consists of hearts, the third of human hands with
the thumb and forefinger extended. The panel contains a shield bearing the arms of
France and England quarterly, ensigned by a royal crown and supported at the top by
two angels and below by two lions. Beneath the shield a wild rose-bush is depicted.
These are the arms of Edward IV., but whether or not the binding was made for that
monarch it is impossible to say. The heart and hand stamps are peculiar ; they may
stand for a rebus of the binder or owner ; they may have a symbolic meaning ; they

certainly are not ordinary stamped binding
tools.

Many of the panel-stamps have upon them
two circular indentations, the origin of which
is doubtful. By some they are thought to be
trade-marks, but the most usual explanation
is that they are the marks of the heads of
the pegs by means of which the stamps were
fixed to a block.

We have seen that among the first sta-
tioners who came to England in Henry VI I. 's
time were Frederic Egmondt and Nicolas
Lecompte. These men were settled here in

1493-

" After 1499," writes Mr. Gordon Duff, " we
lose sight of Egmondt as a publisher for a
considerable time ; but we have evidence of
his industry in another branch of his trade,
that of bookbinding, which was considered
at that time part of the business of a book-
seller. Two panel stamps bearing his mark
or name are known, and both seem from
their appearance to have been cut about the
beginning of the sixteenth century." 1 The
first is a design common in that period. Richard Pynson used a similar one, and
perhaps Nicolas Lecompte also. It consists of a Tudor rose in the centre of a panel
surrounded by a graceful border of vine leaves ; but Egmondt's stamp is distinguished
by an arabesque floral border bearing his initials and mark.

With regard to the use of the Tudor rose on a binding panel, Mr. Weale writes,
" A deed of foundation of masses by Henry VII. in the abbey church of Hyde,
Winchester, now in the town library of Bremen, preserves its original stamped binding,
with a finely designed panel, of which the Tudor rose is the principal ornament. There
are three imitations of this panel, one of which bears the trade-mark of the stationer who
1 Mr. E. Gordon Duff, The Library, June 1890, p. 212.

PANEL USED BY RICHARD PYNSON AND OTHER
BINDERS, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING.

used it. He was probably a York stationer." This seems to refer to Frederic
Egmondt.

Egmondt's second panel is more fanciful : it is a copy of the printer's device of
Philippe Pigouchet, of Paris, a wild man and woman standing on either side of a tree
covered with leaves and fruit ; with one hand they support a shield hanging from a
bough, and bearing the mark and initials of Egmondt ; in the other hand is a flowering
bough. Beneath the mark is the legend,
" Fredericus Egmondt me f[ecit]."

Only two specimens of Egmondt's
panels are known — one in the library at
Caius College, the other in Corpus Christi
College, Cambridge. Both bindings have
upon the reverse a panel containing three
rows of arabesque and foliage, sur-
rounded by a border having ribbons in
the upper and lower portions inscribed
with the names of the four Evangelists.
The dates of the two books are circa
1505 and 1 521, but the stamps may have
been cut about the year 1500.

(1493 — 1529.) Richard Pynson
used a stamp like Egmondt's rose, a
similar floral design upon a panel some-
times found in conjunction with one
bearing his well-known printer's mark.
Two very fine examples of the floral
panel appear on the binding of " Ray-
mundi Summula, Paris, 15 16," etc., now
at Stonyhurst College (T. 9 — 47). This
stamp measures 4 by 2f inches.

An example of a panel from the
cover of " Abbreviamentum Statutorum,"
printed by Pynson in 1499, now in the
British Museum, is here given. The
panel, with the device of the printer-
binder, measures 4J by 2\ inches nearly.
The panel on the reverse of this binding is the same as that given on the opposite
page. There are three bands.

Richard Pynson, though a naturalised Englishman by a patent dated 1493, was a
native of Normandy, and therefore it is not surprising that some of the books he printed
are bound in bindings ornamented with panel stamps used in that country. One of
Pynson's books, " Assertio Septem Sacramentorum " (1522), in the British Museum, is

W.4.9. eUC.

BIXDIXG PAXEL-STAMP WITH RICHARD PYXSOX S MARK.

{From the original in the British Museum.)

142

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

adorned with a large panel stamp arranged in the French style, and containing the
representation of the figures of four saints ; this stamp probably came from Rouen.
Pynson, like Wynkyn de Worde, had assisted Caxton, and upon leaving that master took

W.S. B. J-e-l.

PANEL-STAMP (OBVERSE), USED BY JOHN REYNES. ARMS OF HENRY VII., AND TUDOR ROSE.

(From a binding in the parish library of King's Norton, now in Birmingham Free Library.')

up William de Machlinia's press.1 In 1493 he was established without Temple Bar ; in
1 503 he had removed to the sign of " St. George," beside St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet
Street. He appears to have been favoured by Henry VIII., and in the colophon of an
1 Henry Bradshaw, " Memoranda."

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING. 143

edition of the statutes 1 509 are the words, " By me Richard Pynson, squyer and prenter
to the Kynge's noble grace." He died or retired from business in 1529.

HERALDIC PANEL-STAMPS.— The bookbinders of London about the first decade of
the sixteenth century, perhaps even earlier, adopted a pair of heraldic panels for their
bookbindings. One contained the royal arms, with supporters, a greyhound and a
dragon, discarded in 1528, the other a large Tudor rose and motto : —

" %tt voea vittutie be cefo miesA etxtno
(Sternum fforena rcgta sctytxa fcwf."

These heraldic designs, with slight variations, appear upon many bindings. Nine

PANEL-STAMP (REVERSE), USED BY JULIAN NOTARY, BEARING HIS MARK.

{From the binding of " Cicero's Orations," printed bv Jean Petit, Paris I5°9-)

or ten bookbinders used one or both of these panels. The initials, H. N., H. A., E. G.,
H. I., I. N., I. R., G. R., G. G., R. L., and A. H. have been found upon ten or more varieties.
The stamp bearing the initials of John Reynes, and represented in the accompanying
diagram, is a typical example. Sometimes the stationer placed his initials under the
rose or royal shield ; and if he happened to be a Londoner, he placed the arms of the
city on one of the small shields in the upper corner of the panel.

It is absurd to suppose that all bindings bearing the arms of the kings and queens
of England belonged to the royal library ; but it is by no means improbable that the
use of these arms represented some privilege, as it almost certainly did in the case of
John Reynes. The books for the English Royal Library were bound in quite a different
manner, and the whereabouts of most of them is well known to students of bibliography.

144 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Perhaps the earliest example of a pair of panel stamps bearing these designs
is on a volume now in the library of Worcester Cathedral. The binder's initials
are H.N. ; their owner perhaps was not a citizen of London.1

A London stationer whose initials were H. A. places these letters upon another
pair of stamps, upon which the city arms also appear.

Henry Jacobi, also a London stationer, bookseller, printer, and binder, certainly
used one of these designs, perhaps both, since he appears to have had two or three
varieties of these stamps ; but he combined with the royal arms a stamp representing

PANEL-STAMP (OBVERSE), USED BY JULIAN NOTARY.

(From the binding of " Cicero's Orations" printed by Jean Petit, Paris 1509.)

a gryphon, similar to that used upon some of Caxton's bindings, or else a panel
representing Our Lady of Pity, with the marginal antiphone : —

l&afuc QTlflte QUteerieortte.

Some of Jacobi's bindings are identified by his printer's-mark, which also occurs
on the title-page of a book printed for him in the year 1506.

(1498 — c. 1520.) Julian Notary, a Frenchman, had established himself in King
Street, Westminster, in 1498. In 1 503 we find him living without Temple Bar ; in
1515 in St. Paul's Churchyard, by the west door, where he was busily engaged in
printing and binding books. Notary used at least two varieties of these panels ;
but not till after he removed from Westminster it is supposed, since he placed the
1 W. H. James Weale, Journal of the Society of Arts, March 1st, 1889, p. 312.

ENGLISH STAMP ED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING.

145

city arms on both panels ; his initials I. N, he placed beneath the rose on either side
his trade-mark.

(1527— c. 1544.) John Reynes, who in his day was a famous London printer and
bookbinder, used two varieties of heraldic panels. He placed the arms of the city

PANEL-STAMP (REVERSE), USED BY JOHN REYNES, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

{From a volume in the parish library of King's Norton, now in Birmingham Free Library.)

in the right-hand upper corner on the panel containing the royal arms, and in the one
containing the Tudor rose he placed two shields — one bearing his initials, the other
his device. Below the rose was the pomegranate of Aragon. These panels are on
one stamp. Julian Notary's, on the contrary, are on two. In conjunction with these

10

i46 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Reynes often used a wonderful heraldic stamp representing the instruments of the
Passion. This stamp would seem to have been copied from a contemporary wood
engraving which embellished some of the early printed Books of Hours issued from
the press of Thielman Kerver. The panel measures 5 by 3 \ inches.

Under an arch is a large shield, bearing the cross, crown of thorns, inscription,
tomb, palm-branch, spear, rod and sponge, hammer, pinchers, pierced hand, dice,
garment, lantern, thirty pieces of silver, and the head of Judas Iscariot with the
money-bag hanging round his neck. The shield is supported by two unicorns.
Above it is a royal helmet and mantling surmounted by a crest, consisting of

PANEL CONTAINING TARLY ARMS OF HENRY VIII., FROM A BINDING BY A LONDON STATIONER, G. R.

{From a specimen in the parish library of King's Norton, now in Birmingham Free Library.}

a pillar, rope, birch rods, scourges, and a cock. Below the shield, upon a scroll, is the
motto, in Gothic letters, " Redemptoris Mundi Arma " {The arms of the Saviour of th:
world). On small shields on either side are the mark and initials of John Reynes.
The date of this panel is supposed to be about 1530 or earlier.

Examples of this interesting binding may be seen at the British Museum [on a
copy of " Henrici VIII. ad Lutheri Epistolam Responsio"] (London, 1526), at the
Bodleian Library, Oxford, at Worcester Cathedral, at Birmingham Free Library, and
elsewhere. The mark of this binder appears also on a handsome roll-stamp.

John Reynes was, it is said, appointed royal bookbinder to Henry VIII., but
we have been unable to find any evidence of the appointment ; he resided at the sign
of St. George in St. Paul's Churchyard in 1527. He is supposed to have died about
1545. John Cawood, his servant, succeeded to his business, and became Warden of

ENGLISH STAMP ED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING.

the Stationers' Company in 1557, when he paid for two new glass windows in their

hall one for John Reynes, his master, and the other for himself.1 These, and a

portrait of John Reynes, were probably destroyed by the Great Fire of London.

Another citizen, G. R., appears to have used the panel with the royal arms, but not
that with the Tudor rose. The arms
he enclosed within a border bearing
a verse from the Psalms : —

" Conftfemtnt oonuno quontam | Bonus quo*
tttam I in eccufutn mia (tntemcorota)
ejus. I ©cue mms uepict."

" O give thanks unto the Lord
for He is good : for His mercy en-
dureth for ever," etc. (Psalm cxviii.).

In a volume thus bound in the
Thomas Hall collection, now in Bir-
mingham Free Library, the fly-leaves
form part of a book printed by
Wynkyn de Worde in 1498.2

In conjunction with the royal
arms G. R. employed a panel-stamp
divided into four compartments, each
containing the full-length figure of a
saint beneath a canopy, in the Nor-
man style.

A stationer whose initials were
R. L. used a handsome pair of panels
containing, in the upper corners, a
rose, fleur-de-lis, and shield of St.
George. His initials are placed be-
neath the royal shield.

A citizen, G. G, substituted for
the dragon and greyhound two angels
as supporters of the shield ; he placed
his mark and initials in a small shield
beneath the rose.

An unknown binder, A. H., used the Tudor-rose stamp, surrounded by a border
of foliage, in conjunction with a panel representing the Annunciation, surrounded by
the verse : —

" <£ce« anctffa ootmnt fiat tntcBt seeunoutn wrBum fuutn."

PANEL USED BY THE LONDON STATIONER G. R.

(On obverse of same book.)

1 J. Johnson, " Typographia," vol. i., p. 503.

2 For full account see The Bookbinder, vol.

163.

148 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

"Behold the handmaiden of the Lord," etc. (Luke i. 38). Example in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford (A. 24, Art Seld.).

Many of the stamps already described may have been made in the reign of Henry

PANEL-STAMP (OBVERSE), WITH ARMS OF HENRY VIII.

{From the binding of a collection of tracts printed by Wynkyn de Worde.)

VII., and before the accession of Henry VIII., after which Queen Katherine's badge,
a pomegranate, was added beneath the rose, as on the panels used by E. G. and John
Reynes, but of course many old stamps would be used long after that event. Other

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING. 149

binders used the royal arms differently arranged, notably three whose initials are R. O.,
M. D., and H. A.

R. O. discarded the supporters, and placed the royal arms in two circular medallions

PANEL-STAMP (REVERSE), WITH ARMS OF QUEEN KATHERINE OF ARAGON.

(From the binding of a collection of tracts printed by JVynkyn de Worded)

surrounded by foliage in one panel ; together with this he used a panel with a repre-
sentation of Our Lady of Pity.

M. D., who is believed to have been a Frenchman, used two upright panel-stamps

150 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

with the royal arms in the centre, ensigned by a crown surmounted by a rose, on either
side of which are two " S "-shaped labels ; two portcullises flank the shield, and below are
the supporters, a dragon and a greyhound, and between them the initials M. D. ; a border
of lions and fleur-de-lis surrounds the whole. The panel used with this has a saint with
sword and shield in a circle in the centre ; at the corners are the four sacred beasts.
M. D. also used a panel stamp with medallion heads.

H. A. introduced a quaint little panel with the arms of Henry VIII. impaling those
of Queen Anne Boleyn.

In addition to the royal arms already mentioned, there are some large and very fine
unsigned stamps, some of which we are disposed to think were used by John Reynes.

The first measures S| by 3 \ inches, and represents the royal arms and supporters of
Henry VII. and Henry VIII. ; above are two angels holding scrolls, between them a rose,
and below the shield two portcullises. There are at least two varieties of this stamp. It
may have been copied from a contemporary wood engraving, a print of which may be
seen in a book called " Questiones moralissime super libros ethicorum," etc., printed at
Oxford by John Scolar, 15 18. In conjunction with these are the fine stamps bearing
the arms of Henry VIII. impaling those of Queen Katherine of Aragon, and of
Henry VIII. impaling those of Queen Anne Boleyn (see pp. 148, 149).

There are, moreover, three or four varieties of panel stamps with ornaments of the
royal Tudor badges, as well as numerous borders of badges, described fully in the notice
of Cambridge binding (pp. 152, 157).

PICTORIAL STAMPS. — This class of stamps is more rarely met with in England
than the heraldic, and it is probable that nearly all pictorial stamps used in this country
were imported from the Continent, where figures of saints and other religious subjects
seem to have been more popular than in this country. There are, however, four or five
fine stamps of this class which, although resembling in style the work of Norman
artists, may nevertheless have been cut in England.

There are a pair of panels of St. George and St. Michael, with figures and
accessories decorative in treatment. St. George is seated on horseback, holding a drawn
sword in his right hand ; a small shield with a cross upon it protects his left side ; he is
fully armed, and upon his head is a cap ornamented with three feathers. The horse also
is cased in armour, but the animal's head, which is ridiculously small, seems unprotected,
and it is turned so as to took at the dragon, which lies beneath its feet. In the back-
ground are the princess and the lamb.

The companion panel represents the Archangel Michael slaying another kind of
dragon, more human in appearance than the first. This design is spiritedly drawn ; the
drapery especially good. Below the figure is a shield ensigned by a crown, and upon the
shield a maiden's head. Both these panels are thoroughly English in appearance.
They are thought to have belonged to a binder living in a provincial city, Norwich
perhaps, or else Lincoln, or York, and the sign of whose house is supposed to have been
the Maiden's Head.

Another stamp of St. George bears the binder's initials, L. W. This, like the two last

STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING, EY J. R. , REPRESENTING ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON
EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

152 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

described, is English in appearance, and certainly as old as the time of Henry VII. ; but
since the binders of Rouen and Caen used similar stamps, it is impossible to state the
nationality of this one with certainty.

A binder who joined his initials I. R. with a true-lover's knot made use of two very
fine stamps — one of St. George, the other of the baptism of Christ. Mr. E. Gordon Duff
has proved that these stamps fell, at a later date, into the hands of John Reynes, who
used them for some time. We have already mentioned Reynes' well-known stamp of the
emblems of the Passion.

Another citizen, whose initials, A. R., appear on his stamp of the Annunciation, was
probably an alien.

R. Mace, whose name in Lombard capitals appears at the foot of one or two early
panels, was a Norman bookbinder, who probably visited this country, but apparently did
not settle here ; he lived at Rouen. His stamps may date from the end of the fifteenth
century, but they are usually found on books printed early in the sixteenth century. His
two best-known stamps are a Coronation of the Virgin and an Annunciation. Example :
Lambeth Palace Library (10. 3. 14).

An elaborate panel representing the " Mass of St. Gregory " was much used in
England, and is said to have been found upon the binding of some of Caxton's books.
There are at least two varieties of this panel, and it frequently occurs in conjunction
with a well-designed figure of St. Barbara, who may always be recognised by her
symbol — a three-windowed tower.

To these names may be added those of Michael Lobley and William Hill, living in
St. Paul's Churchyard 1531 — 1536; as also " Toye, the bookbinder," named as engaged
in search for the printers of a work against the government of the Church about 15 SO.1

Lobley, who was one of the original members of the Stationers' Company, united
the trades of bookseller, printer, and bookbinder, at the sign of St. Michael, in St. Paul's
Churchyard. He filled several offices in the Stationers' Company, but in the latter part
of his life appears to have been so much reduced in circumstances as to have been
unable to discharge his note for £7, which he stood indebted to the company ; for
having paid .£3, " the rest was forgiven him by the hole table." 2

William Hill lived at the sign of the Hill in St. Paul's Churchyard. In 1548-49
he printed several books ; afterwards he left off printing and devoted his attention to
bookbinding. He was fined in 1556 for binding primers in parchment, contrary to the
company's orders.3

John Toye carried on the business of a printer and bookbinder at the sign of St.
Nicholas, in St. Paul's Churchyard, about 1531, and is supposed to have been the same
person who in 1 566 was associated with the celebrated printer John Day in searching
for seditious works.

Cambridge. — The Cambridge binder Nicholas Speryng used two panel stamps —
one of the Annunciation with his mark and initials at the foot, the other a figure of

1 Ames' "Typographical Antiquities," ii. 756 and i. 569.
2 Ibid., ii. 756. 3 Ibid.

w.s.B. del.

PANEL-STAMP OF JEHAN MOULIN, A ROUEN STATIONER, WHO VISITED ENGLAND EARLY IN
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

(From a specimen in the library of Worcester Cathedral.)

154 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

St. Nicholas and the three children in the pickle-tub, with his name in full, IFUcbOlaS
SpiernfCfo. A third stamp, used in conjunction with that of the Annunciation, is
divided into two long and narrow panels by a vertical line ; these panels each contain
a branch forming three circles, with a bird and a dragon in each. (See further, p. 1 57.)

Jehan Moulin, a Norman stationer, used a pair of very curious stamps, which from
their frequent occurrence in English libraries would seem to have been brought to this
country by a travelling stationer early in the sixteenth century ; both have a punning
allusion to the binder's name. The first represents a miller riding on an ass through a
wood ; on the man's shoulders is a large bag of wheat. Below the picture is the binder's
name in full, ^Cbail /IftOUlfJt, and a representation of two pigs eating acorns. The
second panel bears a representation of a windmill ; the ass, relieved of his burden,
browses in the foreground, while the miller ascends a ladder to the grinding-room,
carrying the sack of corn upon his back. Above his head are the letters Jeha. and a
large fly ; on the other side of the mill are a ragged staff and a fly ; above the mill are
nine stars.

During the early years of the sixteenth century, a large number of service-books
were imported from France and the Netherlands to this country. Upon the bindings of
these volumes the figures of certain saints were often placed, the most usual being
St. Barbara, St. Nicholas, St. John the Baptist, and St. Catherine.

One of the binders of liturgical books of the use of York placed his initials P. P.
on his bindings ; he was a Norman, and seems to have lived at Rouen.

Another class of stamps, generally well cut but poor in design, are the medallion
panels of distinct Renaissance style, dating from after 1530. Some of these bear
the initials of John Reynes, Godfrey, M. D., T. P., and G. P. ; others are unsigned.
Perhaps the finest of this series is the panel bearing the mark and initials of I. P. and
other initials, probably those of the designer. In the centre in a circular medallion
appears a portrait, perhaps the binder's ; over it are the initials I. P. ; beneath on a
shield the same initials and a trade-mark ; below is the figure of Cleopatra with the asp
around her arm. The word " CLEOPATRA " appears on a label above the leg of the figure.
In the right-hand lower corner is a monogram said to be that of the Augustinian Priory
of SS. Martin and Gregory at Louvain. On a label at the top of the panel is a motto,
probably the binder's : —

" Ingenium volens nihil non."

The remainder of the panel is filled with Renaissance ornament. In conjunction
with this panel another by the same artist, and bearing the same initials, monogram,
trade-mark, and motto, and the addition of the date 1534, occurs on a volume in the
British Museum (C. 46, e. 12). The subject of the second panel is Lucretia stabbing
herself. The binder was probably established at Louvain in the Netherlands, and many
of his books seem to have reached the English market. This is a very rare instance of
a dated panel.

Another very curious panel represents the figure of a woman standing on a stone

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING.

engraved with the word " Fides," and looking towards the clouds, where rests a cross ;
the words " Meritum Christi " are by the side of it. The word " Spes " is placed
behind the figure, and " Charitas " at the feet. There is an inscription at the side of
the figure, and another round the margin. The first inscription
allowing for contractions reads as follows : —

"In te domine speravi, ?ion confundar in aternum, in justitia tua libera
me, et erifie me. Psal. 71."

The inscription in_the border runs thus : —

' ' Quoniam in me sj>eravit, liber abo eum, ftrotegam etim quoniam, etc.
Psal. 90.'' (In English version Psalm 91.)

GERARD WANSFOST S
MARK, C. 1500.

This panel also bears the mark and initials of I. P. Another
variety bears the mark and initials of I. B. The figure seems to
be emblematical of the virtues Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Another late panel binding is dated 1540.

English Provincial Bindings.— Early
in the sixteenth century several foreign stationers
are supposed to have settled in the city of York.
Among these early printers and bookbinders
were Hugo Goes and Gerard Freez or Wansfost,
or Wanseford. Hugo Goes, who is said to have
been the son of a well-known printer of Antwerp,
probably came to York about the year 1 506, and,
remaining there for a few years, removed thence
to Beverley, where he lived for a short time in
the Hyegate, and finally to London. Gerard Wansfost, also a
foreigner, is believed to have been associated with Hugo Goes.1

In 1497 the name of Frederick Freez was entered in the
register of freemen of the city of York with the designation of
" Bokebynder and Stacyoner " ; at a later date he is styled a " Buke
prynter." Gerard Freez or Wansfost, who is supposed to have been
his brother, lived within the Liberty of St. Peter at York, where
he carried on the trade of a stationer. His will was proved v/«.o!
October 1510.

John Guschet, or Guchet, a stationer, appears to have been
at Hereford early in the sixteenth century. In 1516 he had a
shop within the close at York ; he was associated with John Caillard, a Rouen stationer,
and is credited with having printed a Latin-English Dictionary. An important branch
of the trade of all these early stationers was the publishing of liturgical books of the
various English " uses," which books were generally printed abroad specially for the
English market, and were often bound in this country.

1 R. Davies, " Memoir of the York Press," 8vo. 1868.

M

ROLL-STAMF, WITH INITIALS
OF GERARD WANSFOST AND
ANOTHER EARLY STATIONER.

156 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Mr. Davies' account of these stationers is somewhat conjectural, and it is not
certainly known where they worked. They appear to have travelled from place to
place, and Wansfost used Machlinia's printed sheets in his bookbindings.

Wansfost's trade-mark occurs on the covers of many books bound in England
between 1489 and 1510. It consists of the letters G. and W., and a cross with a long
lower limb divided at the end. It is borne on a small shield-shaped stamp, and was
usually impressed many times on the cover of each volume. After Goes and Wansfost
became associated, they both placed their trade-mark on a very beautifully designed
roll-stamp. Many bindings executed between 15 10 and 1535 are thus adorned. There
is an example in the Municipal Library, Birmingham.

OXFORD. — The demand for bound books must have been great in Oxford all
through the Middle Ages ; but, so far as we know at present, Oxford binding, though
well finished and of great solidity, was not conspicuously artistic. The Oxford book-
binders, if we may judge from the few remaining examples of their work, ornamented
the leather sides of their bound volumes with a variety of small dies arranged in the old
English manner ; but the dies used in the fifteenth century were extremely poor. The
binding of the Osney Chartulary, now preserved at the Public Record Office, may
be taken as a specimen. Upon this binding four stamps were used. The oblong
central panel is filled with diamond-shaped dies, each bearing a fleur-de-lis. This panel
is separated from an ornamented border by four ruled lines, at the intersections of which
there are small circular punchings. The inner border is composed of small dies (1 by J
inch), placed end to end, producing a continuous scroll of branches, leaves, and fruit.
The next border is composed of stamps of the same size as the last, but ornamented
with a pattern of leaves twining round a rod. The outer border of dies of the same
size represents a procession of stags.

Thomas Hunte, an English stationer, assisted Theodore Rood of Cologne in
carrying on the first printing-press established at Oxford (1478) ; and their bindings
exhibit a combination of the English and German styles. The tools, which are foreign
in appearance, were no doubt supplied by Rood.1 There is a distinctive character
about these old Oxford bindings by which they may be recognised easily.

David Caslay has left a note in his catalogue of books in the Royal Collection of
an old Oxford binding, now unfortunately destroyed, in which was the following
inscription : —

" Liber ligatus erat Oxonii, in Catstrete, ad instantiam Reverendi Domini Thome
Wybarun, in sacra theologia Bacalarii Monachi Roffensis, Anno Domini 1467." 2

From this it would appear that there was a bookbinder and stationer living near
the schools at Oxford in the fifteenth century. On an old map the bridge leading from
Osney Abbey towards Oxford was called the " Bookbinders' bridge " ; but whence this
name arose does not appear.

Some light as to the materials used for binding in Oxford may be derived from a

1 For further information on Oxford bookbinding see " Historic Bindings in the Bodleian Library."

2 MSS. Reg. 6, D. ii.— See Dibdin's "Bib. Dec," ii. 449.

ENGLISH STAMPED-LEATHER BINDING, TRADE BINDING.

letter of the High Commissioners in Elizabeth's reign concern-
ing superstitious books belonging to All Souls' College in 1 567.
" A Psalter covered with skin ; a prick-song book covered with
a hart's skin ; five other of paper bound in parchment ; and the
Founder's Mass Book in parchment, bound in board."

The often quoted passage from Chaucer, describing the
colour of the bindings of the books desired by the clerke of
Oxenforde, may be adduced as evidence in favour of the colours
of bindings then fashionable at the University : —

" For him was levere have at his beddes heed
Twenty bokes ; clad in blak or reed,
Af Aristotle and his philosophye,
Than robes riche, or fithele, or gay soutrye."

So far as is known at present no panel-stamp was used by
any bookbinder in Oxford in the early years of the sixteenth
century.

CAMBRIDGE. — Owing perhaps to the geographical position
of Cambridge near the east-coast towns, where trade with the
Low Countries was chiefly carried on, we find that several
binders using tools of considerable beauty were at an early
period settled in that University. Mention has already been
made of the panel-stamps used by Nicholas Speryng, who be-
longed to a Netherlandish family of stationers, illuminators,
and bookbinders, some of whom were established at Lille,
others at Antwerp. We must now describe a most interesting
series of roll-stamps bearing the trade-mark of Speryng and
his associates.

A word upon roll-stamps may not be out of place here.

Ornamental roll-stamps were generally used upon folios,
or books of large size, which could not be readily ornamented
with panel-stamps. At first the rolls were wide, generally
measuring about an inch across ; but as the sixteenth century
advanced they rapidly became smaller, till in the time of Hugh
Singleton (1562 — 1593) they had shrunk to less than a third of
their original dimensions. Singleton's roll-stamp consists of
little more than his printers' mark and a scroll. At the be-
ginning of the seventeenth century the roll had reached its
lowest state, when the design, instead of being struck from a
roll cut in intaglio, was struck from one cut in cameo and
appeared indented as in gold-tooling.

John Reynes used a fine roll-stamp bearing a bird, a flower,

Wk

ffi

TH^il

HERALDIC BORDER FROM STAMPED-
LEATHER BINDING, ENGLISH,
EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

{From a specimen in the library
of Lichfield Cathedral?)

1 58 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

a bee, a dog, and his trade-mark. There is a binding ornamented with this tool in
the library of Gloucester Cathedral.

In the year 1529 the University presented a petition to Cardinal Wolsey, praying
that for the suppression of error the king would allow to Cambridge three booksellers,
who should be sworn not to buy or sell any book which had not been approved by
the censors of books of that University ; that such booksellers should be men of reputa-
tion and gravity, and, moreover, foreigners (so it should be best for the prizing of books),
and that they should have the privilege to buy books from foreign merchants.

When the Act of 1534 was passed, a special privilege was granted to the University ;
for on the 20th of July in that year Henry VIII. granted Letters Patent to Nicholas
Speryng, Garrat Godfrey, and Segar Nicholson to become printers, bookbinders, and
book-buyers to the University.

Speryng lived in the parish of St. Mary, of which he was churchwarden in 1516;
he died in 1 545-46. Garrat Godfrey succeeded Speryng as churchwarden of St. Mary's
in 1 5 17, and died in 1539. Roger Ascham, speaking of Erasmus' custom of riding
on horseback for exercise, after " he had been sore at his booke," adds " as Garrett,
our bookebynder, verye oft told me." x Probably the " Garrett " here mentioned was
Garrat Godfrey, whose name originally was, as some say, Gerard van Graten.

John Lair de Siberch, who settled in Cambridge before 1521, and who claims to
be the first printer of that University, used a broad roll with his initials, which afterwards
appears to have fallen into the hands of Speryng, who erasing the I substituted his own
initial N. Mr. Duff has drawn attention to a binding in the library of Westminster
Abbey where Speryng's roll has been used to obliterate that of his associates. Garrat
Godfrey's mark, we believe, consisted of the letters G. G., with a broad arrow over
the second G. Gay Gimpus and Gerard van Graten are said to have used very
similar marks. One of these rolls has a shield bearing three horseshoes. The best
of these Cambridge rolls are those bearing the Tudor badges — the rose, fleur-de-lis,
pomegranate, and portcullis. Other binders ornamented their roll-stamps with similar
heraldic devices, but that used by Siberch is perhaps one of the earliest. Sometimes
a smaller roll was used with good effect upon quarto volumes.

In conclusion it may be noticed that Cambridge binders often used a leather dyed
a dull red colour — a peculiarity often seen in Netherlandish binding, but rarely in this
country.

1 Ascham's " English Works," p. 77.

CHAPTER XII.

BOOKBINDING IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY— SIGNATURES— FORWARDING
—PRICE OF BINDINGS RESTRICTED BY LAW IN ENGLAND— BOOKS IN
CHAINS— ORNAMENTED EDGES— EMBROIDERED BOOKBINDINGS.

HE multiplication of books, it has been said, led to a less expensive
mode of binding than had been usual before, though still retaining
much ornamental beauty ; this may be pronounced the style peculiar
to the sixteenth century. In all the bindings of that period, a minute
care attended every operation. The workmen, or perhaps the printers,
who were also binders, appear to have been desirous thus to preserve
their books to posterity. The pages were folded with an anxious
care for evenness and integrity of the margins, and it is rare to find any transpositions
of the sheets. To guard against error in this respect signatures were used.

Signatures. — Signatures are the sign or- marks which printers place beneath
certain pages for the convenience of the binder, and to distinguish the sequence of the
sections (sometimes styled quires, or gatherings) which they print.

Among old writers it was customary to consider that the practice of signing sheets
was the invention of printers, but there cannot be any doubt that the practice was
simply adopted by the printers from the scribes. William Blades, one of the first
bibliographers who called attention to this fact, wrote as follows : —

" The chief use of signatures was and is for the binder. Binding is certainly as
old as books. Signatures are certainly as old as binders. . . . When the manufacture
of books passed from the monk's scriptorium into the hands of trade guilds, and
the increased demand for books caused a great subdivision of labour ; and when,
instead of one, a manuscript would pass through a dozen workmen's hands before
completion, — then signatures became a necessity, as much for the scribe as for the
binder, as necessary for the collation of the early manuscript as for the steam-printed
novel of to-day." *

1 William Blades, " Books in Chains," etc , p. 88.
159

160 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

In early times it was the custom to place the signatures at the extreme edge of
the parchment or paper, in order that, being unimportant to the bound book, and not
pertinent to the text, they might disappear under the knife of the binder. This
position of the signatures will account for their absence in most old books, although
they are sometimes still to be found half cut away.

Till the sixteenth century the binder did not make use of the "plough" to cut
the edges of his books. When that pernicious instrument was invented is unknown,
but in the fifteenth century the shears seem to have been in general use. In Jost
Amman's "Book of Trades" (Frankfurt, 1534) we have the earliest representation of
a binder at work (see p. 122). He has a book securely fastened between two strong
pieces of wood, by means of screws, and holding it between his knees, he is " ploughing "
with a sharp knife through the edges. This, of course, would make the leaves perfectly
even, a characteristic never found in a " fifteener " which retains its original binding.

" When printing was invented," wrote Mr. Blades, " no new method of signatures
was at first adopted. The Mazarine Bible, for instance, which is a large folio, was
printed page by page, and signed by the pen at the foot of the first four rectos of each
signature, just as if it had been a manuscript."

Caxton's early books show the same treatment. Owing to the small size of the
" platen " (which is the flat surface lowered by the screw to squeeze the paper upon
the type) of the early presses, it was impossible to print the signatures near the edge
of the paper, and consequently some Italian printers tried the experiment of stamping
them in with types by hand. This and some other methods were found to be incon-
venient, and at last a bold idea struck a Cologne printer, who, ignoring the ugliness,
placed his type signatures close up to the solid page. This custom soon became
general.

FORWARDING. — There is a solidity about these early books which testifies to no little
labour in the beating and pressing of the sheets when folded. Binders continued the
use of a slip of parchment round the end-papers and first and last sheets of many
books, to preserve the backs from injury, and to strengthen the joint. The last leaf
was also strengthened by the addition of other paper, and in this position the fragments
of early printed books and engravings, previously unknown, have been discovered.

The quires were sewn on a series of strong slips of white leather, placed at equal
distances from each other, so as to form the division of the back when covered. Some-
times double bands arranged close together are seen, the thread tightly and firmly
drawn round in the sewing. These double bands are very distinguishable on the cover,
a line being run across in the small groove between them. The solidity of this portion
of the bindings of the sixteenth century, coupled with the formation of the back, is
seen in many books which still remain perfectly firm after the cover has been worn
away, nothing but damp appearing to affect them.

The boards, when of wood, were generally of oak and beech, but planed thinner
than those of the period preceding. Some of them were bevelled off to a fine edge,
slanting from the leaves of the book. The bands or thongs of leather were laced into

PRICES OF BOOKBINDINGS. 161

the board in a similar manner to the present mode, but part of the wood was cut away
to make room for them.

Price of Commercial Bindings.— By the Act of 1534 three kinds of commercial
bindings are recognised : books bound in boards {i.e., " half-bound "), in leather, and in
parchment. These were the common covers for early printed books, and were similar
to the bindings of ordinary manuscripts before the invention of printing. But for
books of the noble and rich more costly materials were used. Velvet was at this period
most usually employed in covering volumes of special interest or value, as appears from
particulars of old libraries and in inventories. (See Chap. XIV.)

The prices of bound books fixed by law are mentioned in several royal proclama-
tions. One bearing date May 1540 relates to Grafton's Bible, then recently printed,
which was to be sold at 10s. unbound, and not above 12s. well bound and clasped.1 At
the end of the " Booke of Common Prayer," printed by Richard Grafton, in folio, in 1 549,
is this notice : " The King's Majestie, by the advice of his most dere uncle the lord
protector, and other his hignes counseil, straightly chargeth, and commandeth that nc
manner of persone shall sell this present book unbound above the price of two shyllynges
and two pence. And the same bound in paste or in bordes in calves lether not above
the price of four shyllynges the pece. God save the Kyng."

Strype relates that Sir William Cecil, Secretary of State to Edward VI., procured
for Seres, a printer in St. Paul's Churchyard in 1569, a licence to print all manner of
private prayers, called Primers, as should be agreeable to the Common Prayer established
by Court of Parliament, and that none other should print the same. And when printed,
that, by the lords of the Privy Council, or by the Lord Chancellor, etc., the reasonable
price thereof be set, as well in the leaves, as being bound in paste or board, in like
manner as was expressed in the end of the Book of Common Prayer.

These prices of early printed books may be compared with the cost of an ordinary
manuscript at the end of the fifteenth century, before printing had superseded the trade
of the scribe. In an account-book of the destroyed Church of St. Ewen, Bristol, occur
the following entries respecting the cost of a lesson-book, called a Legend, for the use
of the church 2 : —

1468. 8th year of Edward IV.

i. doss (dozen) and v. quavers (quires) to perform ye Legend . . . xs. vid.

Item for wrytyng of ye same xxvs.

Item for ix. skynns and i. quayer of vellom to same Legend ... vs. vid.

Item wrytyng ye foreseyd Legend iiis. ivd.

Also for a red skynne to kever the Legend vd.

Item for binding and correcting of the said boke vs.

Also for guming of the said Legend xiiis. vid.

Also for clensyng of the same boke xiid.

Total iiil. ivs. iiid.

1 Lewis, " Translations of the Bible," p. 137.

2 John Taylor, "The Monastic Scriptorium," a paper read before the Library Association,
London, 1889. The Library, July 1890, p. 237.

1 62 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING,

The total of this account does not seem large, but the value of money at the time
must be considered. It appears that a "tyler" was paid 3^d. a day for repairs to the
church roof, and it has been computed that the book could not have been worth less
than £30 of present money. An inventory of goods at the same church, taken in 1455,
records that there were thirty volumes of service-books, and if these cost about the same
as the Legend, St. Ewen's Church library must have been a valuable one. The interesting
point in the comparison, however, is the difference between the cost of a manuscript and
a printed book. The binding of the manuscript with its various processes in 1468 cost
nearly £1, while that of a printed book a century later cost but 2s. ; the leather in
the first instance costing t>d., while the binding alone was charged 5-y.

Of the progressive improvements in bookbinding, and the materials with which
books were covered, the public libraries of Europe, and especially, as will be seen in
another chapter, the royal libraries at London and Paris, exhibit many specimens.

It was in the sixteenth century that wooden boards were at length discarded in
favour of pads of paper or sheets of cardboard, and, more important than all previous
innovations, gold-tooling came into general use.

BOOKS JN CHAINS. — But before we commence to trace the history of the develop-
ment of that ornamental and highly seductive art, we must investigate the history of
the ancient practice of imprisoning literature by chaining books to the library shelves —
a practice which became general in the latter part of the fifteenth century, when books
were no longer kept in coffers or armaria, but placed upon open bookshelves.

" The custom of fastening books to their shelves by chains was common at an early
period throughout all Europe," wrote William Blades in his excellent monograph on this
subject. " When a book was given to a mediaeval library, it was necessary, in the first
place, to buy a chain, and, if the book was of especial value, a pair of clasps ; secondly, to
employ a smith to put them on ; and lastly, a painter to write the name and class-mark
across the fore-edge. Large collections of chained books were for the use of particular
bodies of students ; but when religious zeal made many people feel the want of spiritual
food, it led to the chaining of single volumes in churches, where any parishioner, able to
read, could satisfy his soul." 1

The Bible was, of course, one of the books most commonly found chained in
churches ; but Foxe's " Book of Martyrs," and various works of good Bishop Jewel, were
favourites also ; and in one instance in the north of England a dictionary was chained
to a desk in the church.

Of this peculiar custom an early notice occurs relative to the books left by Richard
de Bury to Durham, now Trinity, College, Oxford, in 1345. After the college became
possessed of them, they were for many years kept in chests under the custody of several
scholars deputed for that purpose, and a library being built in the reign of Henry IV.,
these books were put into pews or studies, and chained to them. They continued in
this manner till the college was dissolved by Henry VIII., when they were conveyed
away, some to Duke Humfrey's library.2 Leland (1538), speaking of Wressil Castle,
1 W. Blades, "Books in Chains," etc., p. 18. 2 King's "Munimenta Antiqua," 152, and Warton.

CHAINED BOOKS.

163

Yorkshire, says : " One thing I likid excedingly yn one of the towers, that was a Study,
caullid Paradise ; wher was a closet in the midle, of 8 Squares latised aboute, and at the
Toppe of every Square was a Desk ledgid to set Bookes on Cofers withyn them, and
these semid as yoinid hard to the Toppe of the Closet ; and yet by pulling, one or al
wold cum downe briste highe in rabettes, and serve for Deskes to lay Bookes on." '

In an old account book of St. John's College, Cambridge, is this entry : " Anno 1556.
For chains for the books in this library, 3^. Anno 1560. For chaining the books
in the library, 4s." And among the articles for keeping the Universitie Librarie,
Maie 1582 — " If any chaine, clasps,
rope, or such like decay happen to
be, the sayd keeper to signify the
same unto the v. chancellour within
three days after he shall spy such
default, to the ende the same may
be amended."

That books were frequently
chained to desks we learn from
Wood, who, in speaking of Foulis's
" History of the Plots and Con-
spiracies of our Pretended Saints
the Presbyterians," says, "This
book hath been so pleasing to the
royalists, that they have chained it
to desks in public places for the
vulgar to read."

Sir Thomas Lyttleton, knight,
bequeathed, A.D. 1481, "to the
abbot and convent of Ff ales-Owen,
a boke wherein is contaigned the
Constitutions Provincial and De
Gestis Romanorum, and other treatis therein, which I wull be laid and bounded with an
yron chayne in some convenient parte within the saide church, at my costs, so that all
preests and others may se and rede it whenne it pleaseth them." 2 Sir Thomas bequeathed
another book to the Church of King's Norton, Worcestershire. The old parish church,
Chelsea, contains a typical collection of chained books kept in an oaken case upon the
sill of one of the windows. The five chained volumes are : —

1. Fox's Book of Martyrs, 1681.

2. „ „ 9th edition, 1684.

3. The Homilies, 1683.

4. The Vinegar Bible, 1716,

5. The Book of Common Prayer, 1723.

1 "Itinerary," i. 59. a Nicolas's " Test. Vetusta," i.

SMALL OAKEN CASE IN " OLD CHELSEA CHURCH," CONTAINING
TEN BOOKS, FIVE CHAINED.

1 64 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

In the church of Grantham, Lincolnshire, was a library remarkable for being one of
the very few remaining that had its volumes chained to the shelves.1 The books there
are now well cared for. There are two hundred and sixty-eight volumes, principally
divinity, in various bindings of calf and vellum, with wooden boards or strong paste-
board. Seventy-four have chains attached to them still. This library was given to
the Church of Grantham in 1598. The books were formerly fixed to strong desks or
benches, the ring at the end of the chain being attached to a bolt fastened to the shelves.
It is supposed that this library was first neglected about one hundred and seventy years
ago, when, from a great fire that took place in the town, a number of the sufferers were
allowed to take refuge in it, to the great injury of the books. In the year 1882 the
room and the bookcases were thoroughly repaired.

This custom of chaining books appears to have been very generally adopted in all
public libraries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries In the first draft of
statutes which Sir Thomas Bodley drew up for his library, he observes, " As it may be
lawful and free for all comers in, to peruse any volumes that are chained to the
desks, in the body of the library, not forgetting to fasten their clasps and strings, to
untangle their chains," 2 etc. He speaks in one of his letters of books being " chained
to prevent embezzlement," 3 and that they had better be clasped after they are chained.
His orders for chains are very frequent and very extensive, on one occasion for a
thousand. He wishes to know what fault is found with them, " for I know they will
catch, but yet less than any I have seen," and requests " Mr. Haidocke to procure
clasps for Mr. Vice CJiancellor's two great volumes, so that they may be chained,
and stand as a fair ornament." He also speaks of the chains being so disposed " that
they may not take away the sight and show of the books," and mentions " John Smith,
the maker of the chains," " the chainman," 4 etc.

To the year 1720, at least, did this precaution against pilfering partially continue.
A paper found in a copy of " Lock on the Epistles," of this period, thus amusingly
enters into the subject. " Since, to the great reproach of the nation, and a much greater
one of our holy religion, the thievish disposition of some that enter into libraries to
learn no good there, hath made it necessary to secure the innocent books, and even the
sacred volumes themselves, with chains — which are better deserved by those ill persons,
who have too much learning to be hanged, and too little to be honest, care should be
taken hereafter, that as additions shall be made to this library, of which there is a
hopeful expectation, the chain should neither be longer, nor more clumsy, than the use
of them requires : and that the loops, whereby they are fastened to the books, may be
nvetted on such a part of the cover, and so smoothly, as not to gall or raze the
books, while they are removed from or to their respective places. Till a better
may be devised, a pattern is given in the three volumes of the Centur Magdeburg,
lately given and set up. And forasmuch as the latter, and much more convenient
manner of placing books in libraryes, is to turn their backs outwards, with the titles and

1 Hartshorne's " Book Rarities of Cambridge," 17. 3 Ibid., 102.

2 Hearne's "Rel. Bodl.," 26. 4 Ibid., 123, 137, 152, 167.

CHAINED BOOKS.

165

other decent ornaments in gilt-work, which ought not to be hidden, as in this library,
by a contrary position, the beauty of the fairest volumes is ; — therefore, to prevent this
for the future, and to remedy that which is past, if it shall be thought worth the pains,
this new method of fixing the chain to the back of the book is recommended, till one
more suitable shall be contrived." 1

The most important chained library in the world is the Laurentian Library at
Florence. This library was begun in 1525 by order of Pope Clement VII. (Guilio dei
Medici). Michael Angelo designed the building. The bookcases were probably designed
by Antonio di Mario di Giano and Gianbattista del Tasso.

The largest chained library in England is that in Hereford Cathedral. It contains
about two thousand volumes, of which fifteen hundred are chained.

At All Saints' Parish Church, Here-
ford, there is a library containing some
two hundred and eighty-five chained
volumes, bequeathed to the parish by
William Brewster, M.D., so late as 171 5 ;
but books were chained in churches even
more recently than that.

In a room over the vestry of Wim-
borne Minster, Dorsetshire, about two
hundred and forty books are chained
to their shelves.

Books are still imprisoned in chains
in nearly a hundred libraries and churches
in England and Wales. A full list
of these places is given in William
Blades' interesting work, to which we
must refer the reader for further in-
formation.2

In many old books of accounts entries occur of money paid to the local smith or
bookbinder for adding metal guards, bosses, and chains to books placed in churches,
guild chapels, and public libraries. For instance, in the accounts of the guild of
Stratford-on-Avon we read under the year 1442-43 : —

" Paid William Lokyer for making ferrements circa librum in capella vocat le
Bybill, 7s. 2d."3

When books were chained it was almost impossible to place them as they are now
placed, with the fore-edge towards the wall and the back fronting outwards, because
the chains were usually fastened to the front edge of the cover ; but long before the
sixteenth century this method of arranging books leaves outwards on their shelves had

BOOKCASE FOR CHAINEE
ARRANGEMENT OF

BOOKS, SHOWING THE USUAL
MEDIAEVAL LIBRARY.

(Drawn from the original in Hereford Cathedral Library.)

1 "Papers on the Dark Ages," British

- W. Blades, " Books in Chains."

3 " Stratford-on-Avon Guild Accounts,'5 p. 26.

391-

1 66

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

prevailed. The titles, when not written on the upper cover, were usually inscribed upon
the fore-edge of the leaves. In the twelfth century, however, it would seem that books
sometimes had their titles written upon the back, as at present ; an example of this
may be seen upon a manuscript of St. Augustine at the Bodleian Library.

ORNAMENTED EDGES. — Since in a mediaeval library the edges of the volumes
alone were visible when the books were stored upon shelves, it became important that
the edges should be adorned ; accordingly we find in the sixteenth century, when gold-
tooling came into fashion, much pains bestowed upon gilding, tooling or gauffering, and

painting of the edges of books.
Italian, especially Venetian, books
were thus adorned, and the fashion
spread to France and England. A
binding in the Bibliotheque Maza-
rine upon a book printed in 1507
by Gilles de Concourt at Paris, and
having the emblems of Louis XII.
upon the cover, has the edges
gilt and tooled very beautifully.
This may be one of the earliest
French examples of tooled edges,
but we have seen earlier Italian
specimens. Some of the volumes
from the collection of Henry II.
and Dianne de Poytiers have the
edges beautifully gilt and gauffered
with the well-known emblems and
monogram of the royal favourite.
The Lyonese bookbinders excelled
in this kind of ornament, pro-
ducing some gorgeous effects in
gold and colour. Henry VIII. of
double book : two books in one binding (each opening the England had many of his books

REVERSE WAV TO THE OTHER), SIDES AND BACK EMBROIDERED, adorned ^ jfc and gauffered

EDGES GAUFFERED. NEW TESTAMENT AND PSALMS, I03O. ° °

{British Museum.) edges. Examples, possibly by Ber-

thelet, may be seen at the Bodleian
Library. Some English collectors preferred to place their coat-of-arms, emblazoned
in proper colours, upon the edges of their books, as may be seen in Worcester Cathedral
Library, where some of the volumes bear the arms of Bishop Babington. Various
elaborate methods of ornamenting the edges after they had been gilded were practised
in the sixteenth century in all the countries of Western Europe, but the earliest was
the punching of a design upon a plain gold surface as seen in the curious little
double volume here represented.

ORNAMENTED EDGES. 167

Pictures were at times painted upon the edges of books. There is a complete
sixteenth-century library, consisting of a hundred and seventy volumes, with painted
illuminations on their edges. This library, formerly at the Villa Casteldarno Belluno, is
now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Brooke, at Armitage Bridge, near Huddersfield,
and forms a beautiful array of delicately painted miniatures, mostly the work of Cesare
Vecellio, a Venetian illuminator of the latter part of the sixteenth century. Vecellio
was nephew of Titian, and inherited some of the taste and skill in painting which
rendered his uncle world-famous. He was an author also, having written a book on
costume, in which he mentions the noble family of Pillone and their beautiful Villa of
Casteldarno. The books in the library of Casteldarno were worthy of the house, and
Vecellio adorned the vellum sides of twenty volumes with drawings in Indian ink, while
upon the fore-edges of over one hundred and forty he painted charming miniatures.
The library was brought from Venice, where the custom of painting portrait figures
upon the front edges of books was by no means uncommon, the author of the work
or some person mentioned in it being the favourite subject.1

German binders seem to have been fond of painted edges, and from about 1 560 to
1580 many German books were thus adorned. Several typical examples are exhibited
in South Kensington Museum. Another method, of more recent introduction, is
marbling the edges. Varieties of this ornament are occasionally met with where the
marble has been subsequently gilded over, producing a very rich effect.

A still later development is the hidden painting apparently first practised in England
late in the eighteenth century. The leaves of the book, after being cut quite smooth at
the edges, are doubled just sufficiently to render a very small portion of the side of each
leaf visible ; in this position they are secured between two boards. The artist then makes
a water-colour drawing upon this surface. The book is then released from the boards,
and the leaves assume their normal position, and the edges are gilded. The drawing is
not seen till the leaves are again fanned out. In this way some charming and un-
expected effects are sometimes produced. At the special exhibition of bookbinding at
Nottingham 1891, Mr. J. Fazerley, of Liverpool, exhibited several books with concealed
paintings on the fore-edge.

Embroidered Bookbindings. — There are few more pleasing accupations for the
skilful fingers of a lady than that of embroidering a book-cover. Great ladies from
Helen of Troy to Good Queen Bess have beguiled the tedium of many a quite hour or
found solace for a troubled mind at their embroidery frame. At the present time a taste
for the old kinds of embroidery is being fostered by people who desire to see England
again famous for her needlework as she was in the thirteenth century when the beauty
of the " Opus Anglicanum " received commendation from Pope Innocent IV. The sides
of a book-cover furnish an excellent field for the exercise of the needle, and it may not
be out of place here to record a few facts about the materials used and the kind of
embroidery found upon old bookbindings.

1 Professor J. H. Middleton, "Illumination." See also Catalogue of the Library, 1891, vol. ii.,
pp. 663 to 681.

1 68 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Embroidered book-covers are usually worked upon a foundation of velvet, satin, silk,
linen, or canvas ; and the materials for the work are coloured silks, either floss or twist,
wool, worsted, thread, gold and silver wire, seed pearls, and metalic spangles. Wire was
at first imported from the East ; when twisted or coiled in a spiral manner and cut into
short lengths, like beads, it is called purl, whence purflbig, from pour filer, meaning to
thread on. Purl was first imported into England in the sixteenth century. Plate, a flat
variety of wire, is stitched on to the foundation with threads of fine silk ; when plate is
coiled round a cord it is called liszarding. Gold thread is sometimes twisted upon a

BINDING OF HOLY BIBLE, 1646, EMBROIDERED IN COLOURED SILKS AND GOLD THREAD OBI WHITE SATIN.

{From the original in the British Museum.)

silken or flaxen cord, but sometimes extremely fine wire of the metal itself is used
without the strengthening cord. Cheap and worthless imitations of all these wires have
long been in the market.

The materials were applied in various ways according to the kind of foundation used,
and the nature of the design ; sometimes the embroidery was flat, sometimes raised, and
sometimes applique. Examples dating from the fourteenth century are worked flat, while
most of those done in the sixteenth or early part of the seventeenth century are in
relief. The mysteries of stitchery will be best discovered by reference to actual examples,
or failing these to photographs of them.1 But the stitches may be broadly divided into

1 Books like the '' Encyclopedia of Needlework," by Therese de Dillmont, or " The Art of

EMBROIDERED BOOKBINDINGS.

169

two classes, raised stitches and flat ones ; the first include tent, cross, chain, and many-
more the names of which are best known by ladies ; the second, twist, stem, satin, and all
stitches used in " feather work." The raised stitches give a broad effect when used
judiciously ; the flat one may be used so as to rival the finest work of the paint brush.

Embroidered book -covers were by no means rare during the Middle Ages ; in the
sixteenth century they were much affected for books of devotion, and for presentation
copies of favourite works. Like other arts, that of embroidery has had its periods

IllliliflllP^

■r .

I-COVER OF BLUE VELVET EMBROIDERED WITH SILVER PURL.

{From the original at South Kensington Museum.)

of prosperity and debasement : it attained a high degree of excellence during the
sixteenth century ; under the Stuarts much good work was done. But at the end of
the seventeenth century it sank to mediocrity, and in the eighteenth it reached its
final stage of degradation, from which it is now slowly emerging.

Mention is elsewhere made (chap, xiv.) of the fine bindings worked by or for our

Needlework," by the Countess of Walton, may be consulted. Lessons in the old kinds of embroidery
ma}' be had at the Royal School of Art Needlework, South Kensington. The following books can be
recommended: "Dictionary of Needlework," by Caulfield and Saward (1882); Art at Home series,
vol. 3 ; " Needlework," 1880 ; and Art Work manuals, No. 4 — 7, 1882.

I7°

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

English queens and princesses ; in this chapter it is only necessary briefly to refer to the
various styles of embroidered bindings.

An example of fine embroidery on canvas may be seen at the British Museum upon
the binding of a Latin Psalter, written in England at the end of the thirteenth century.
The embroidery was probably worked by or for Anne, daughter of Sir Simon Felbrigge,
K.G., a nun of Bruisyard in Suffolk, who owned the manuscript in the latter half of the
fourteenth century. On the upper cover the Annunciation, on the lower the Crucifixion,
are worked on fine canvas in coloured silks. The background is wrought with gold

thread stitched down in a wave-like pat-
tern. The figures are exquisitely worked
on the flat.

In the time of Henry VIII. velvet and
satin were the materials commonly used as
foundations by the embroiderers of book-
covers, and the designs, when not heraldic,
were generally arabesque. Coloured silk,
gold and silver thread, and purl formed
the threads of the embroidery. Portraits
in needlework were in fashion in the reigns
of James I. and Charles I. They were
generally stitched flat, like that of the
Duke of Buckingham on the green velvet
cover of a volume in the Bodleian Library,
Bacon's Essays (Arch. Bod. D. 104) ; that
of Charles I. on a Psalm Book, 1643, at
the British Museum ; and that of Queen
Henrietta Maria, on a New Testament,
1656, in the possession of Monsieur Leon
Gruel of Paris.1

It is related that King Charles I.,
during the Civil Wars, used to send locks
of hair to his friends as marks of favour, for
the ladies of their families to use in work-
ing his portrait upon book-covers.
White satin was another favourite material for the covers of books ; and some fine
effects in coloured silks upon a white ground were achieved by the ladies of the period,
especially, it is said, by the industrious sisters of Little Gidding.

A grotesque style of embroidery arose in the reign of James I., known as embroidery

on the stump: Little stuffed figures of people in the costume of the period were stitched

on to a flat surface ; the faces were often painted, and the hair and wigs done in

complicated knotting. " This style," writes Miss Prideaux, an authority on this subject,

1 Illustration given in The Bookbinder, vol. ii., p. 54.

BINDING EMBROIDERED WITH SILVER AND GOLD PURL.

{South Kensington Museum.)

EMBROIDERED BOOKBINDINGS. 171

'had its origin in Germany ; and though thoroughly inartistic in principle, some foreign
examples are attractive, but the English ones are without a redeeming quality." '

A typical example is preserved at the Bodleian (Douce Bibles, N.T. Eng., 1625,
g. 1.). It may be described as a small binding in white satin, with figures in high relief;
the garments composed of loose pieces of silk tacked upon the groundwork, the figures
represent King David playing upon a harp, and, on the reverse, Abraham in the act
of sacrificing his son. The Patriarch is attired in a large wig and falling collar of the
period of Charles 1 1. This volume was purchased from Thorpe, the bookseller, in whose
catalogue for 1832 it is priced at five guineas, and described as "said to be bound in
a piece of a waistcoat of Charles I."

One of the finest examples of seventeenth-century needlework may be seen at the
Bodleian Library upon a Prayer Book, 1639 ; two large panels representing Peace and

BOOK-COVER EMBROIDERED UPON WHITE SATIN, WITH A PORTRAIT OF CHARLES I.

{From a Book of Psalms, 1643, in the British Museum.')

Plenty adorn the sides, and the panels are framed in raised work of gold and silver
wire, purl and thread.

Lord Bacon, it is thought, delighted to place some of his books in beautiful covers
of embroidered velvet. Two of these have come down to our days ; the first is in the
Bodleian, and has been mentioned already ; the second is now in the British Museum ;
it adorns a copy of Bacon's works published in 1623 ; the binding is of purple velvet
worked with silver purl. A lace-like border surrounds a panel with a centre ornament
and corner-pieces.

The examples given so far are English work, and the ladies of this ccuntiy have

1 The Magazine of Art, October 1890, p. 430. "Embroidered Book-covers," by (Miss) S. T.
Prideaux. This is the best monograph on the subject of embroidered book-covers, and the editor
desires to acknowledge the great assistance it has been to him.

172 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

been famous in times past for the beauty of their embroidered book-covers. The ladies
of France, Spain, and the Netherlands have produced excellent work also. The Dutch
binding here represented, although perhaps a little too ornate to be quite in good taste,
is a marvellous specimen of skilfully applied ornament, reminding us of the lines of old
John Taylor, the water-poet : —

" Flowers, Plants, and Fishes, Birds. Flyes, and Bees,
Hills, Dales, Plaines, Pastures, Skies, Seas, Rivers, Trees,
There's nothing neere at hand, or farthest sought,
But with the needle may be shap'd and wrought."

NOTE. — For some account of embroidered bindings belonging to English kings
and queens, see chap. xiv.

WHITE SATIN BOOK-COVER EMBROIDERED WITH COLOURED SILK, GOLD, SILVER, AND SEED-PEARLS,
DUTCH, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

{From the original in South Kensington Museum.)

CHAPTER XIII.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS— ITALIAN— FRENCH— GREAT COLLECTORS AND
FAMOUS BOOKBINDERS.

HE history of the art of ornamenting leather with gold is quite distinct
from the history of other kinds of embellishment, and for this reason
a separate chapter is devoted to European gold-tooling.

Four styles of gold-tooling, corresponding with as many periods
of history, may be traced from the fifteenth century to the present
time : —

i. From about 1470 to 1600, the period of Aldus, Maioli, Grolier,
Canevari, in Italy; of the royal bindings done for Francis I., Henry II., and Dianne
de Poytiers in France; of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth in England.

2. From about 1600 to 1700, with which period are associated the names of some
great French and English collectors — De Thou, James I., and the artists Le Gascon,
the Eves, Gibson, and many more.

3. The eighteenth century, the time of Boyet, Du Seuil, Nicholas and Antoine
Padeloup, and the Deromes in France, and of the Harleian style, and Roger Payne
in England.

4. The nineteenth century, including countless imitators of all previous styles,
and the latest style, which is the result of the teaching of John Ruskin, William
Morris, and Cobden Sanderson.

All these styles, with the exception, perhaps, of the latest development of the last,
are more or less tinged with commercialism ; therefore they cannot be compared with

173

174

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

the works of art of an earlier period. But if they are lacking in true art instinct, they
are sometimes tasteful, and of high merit technically.1

ITALIAN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY TOOLED BINDING.

(Diagram from an example in the Bodleian Library.*)

The art of applying golden ornament to leather is of unknown antiquity ; it was
1 See Professor Middleton's opinion on this point, "Illuminated Manuscripts," p. 267 et seq.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS. 175

practised in Egypt many ages ago, and it found favour with the art workmen of Spain
and Germany in the Middle Ages. Very few, if any, examples of mediaeval book-
bindings in gold-tooled leather are known ; but in the second half of the fifteenth century
a German living in Rome produced bindings thus ornamented, and similar work was
done at Augsburg about the same time : it had long before been common among the
nations of Asia. In the East, and probably in Europe, during the early days of the art,
gold was applied to leather by means of cold tools and gum ; now the tools are heated
before being used.

Gold-tooling, as compared with stamping or blind-tooling, appeals more strongly to
the eye : it is more brilliant and dazzling ; it can be used in combination with colours for
the production of gorgeous effects.

Contemporaneously with the stamped work of Western Europe, a different style
prevailed in the East, and especially in the Levant ; it spread through Syria and Egypt,
underwent several modifications, and is now called Saracenic. Its distinguishing features
are knots and interlacements, resembling rope twists, and purely geometrical in character,
usually effected by blind-tooling, but occasionally gilded and coloured. Another style
of ornament, apparently derived from Persian and Arabian art, very simple, and being
in fact a conventional treatment of leaves, then became common.

The Italian and French gold-tooling of the first half of the sixteenth century is
chiefly a development from the union of these two principles ; geometrical interfacings
and conventional foliage form the base of all ornamental work on the bindings of the
two chief amateurs, Maioli and Grolier.

In the fourteenth century, owing to the intimate relation existing between Venice
and other Italian cities with the East, this style of ornamenting leather spread into
Italy ; the Moors had introduced a similar art into Spain. In the fifteenth century
French and English travellers in Italy brought back with them a taste for books bound
in the Italian manner. Thus the historical sequence of gold-tooled leather bookbinding
can be traced through Italy and Spain to France and England.

Shortly before this, about the year 1475, it is said, the Saracenic rope ornament
upon Venetian bindings began to be sprinkled with gold dots — an innovation which led
to the development of ornament in gold, and finally sealed the fate of blind-stamping.1

Asiatic bookbinders made free use of both gold and colours in the adornment
of their best bindings. The Persians were especially famous for the beauty of their
leather work ; and the Italians, by whom painted gesso bindings had been made as early
as the thirteenth century, seem to have approved of the fine examples of binding brought
to them from the East, and to have adopted the Oriental method of ornamentation with
success.

It is said that some of the Italian bindings in the Oriental fashion were the work

of Eastern artists who came to Europe by the overland route in the days when the

Venetians monopolised the trade with Asia. Some of these bindings are composed

of papiermache with sunken compartments, gilt and stippled, the raised surface blue,

1 The Bookbinder, vol. ii., p. 117.

176

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

and the whole covered with scroll-work in colours and gold respectively.1 Hitherto
Italian bookbinding has not received the attention it deserves, and it has been usual to
praise the work of French artists and to ignore the superior ability of their Italian con-
temporaries.

(1449 — 1515.) Aldus Pius Manutius, the great Venetian printer, was in a measure
the reformer of European bookbinding. Born at Bassanio in the Roman States in
1449, he studied for some years at Rome, and became the friend of Prince Alberto Pio,
who allowed him to assume the name " Pius," to which he also added " Romanus." In
1489 Aldus began to organise in Venice the most perfect printing-office the world had
hitherto seen. The first book was issued from his press in 1494.

In the year 1 502 the Aldine press became so active that it was necessary to increase
and improve the department devoted to binding. It was about this time that Aldus
established his Academy of artists and learned men, and in it many Christian refugees

CONTEMPORARY MEDAL OF ALDUS.

Obverse, aldus pius manutius, r[omanus].
Reverse, snEYAE BPAAEJ22 (hasten slowly).

from the Levant found employment and safety. Some Eastern bookbinders, it is
affirmed, came to Venice at that period, and to the skill of these men, directed by
Aldus himself, we owe the improvement in binding which then became so marked.

To the Aldine Academy came, it is said, Hans Holbein, Geoffroy Tory, and other
artists from Western Europe ; who, upon their return from Venice, carried with them to
Germany, France, and England the methods they had learned from the Levantine
artists. Aldus died in 1515, but his press was continued for some years after his death.
He was the friend of Jean Grolier, the French Minister of the Milanese, who visited
Venice in 1512, and of Thommaso Maioli — two of the most famous book-lovers the
world has known.

Aldus appears to have sold his books in bindings of vellum or leather, usually
quite plain, but sometimes, especially in the case of small-sized volumes, and of those

1 Surgeon Lieutenant-Colonel T. H. Hendley, CLE., 'Journal of Indian Art and Industry,
vol. v., p. 52.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS.

W

W>.(k..4£i6.. *

VENETIAN GOLD-TOOI.ED COMMERCIAL BINDING, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

(Diagram from an example in the Bodleian Library.)

intended for his friends and patrons, the leather or vellum received an adornment in
gold-tooling. His earliest bindings had gold-tooling upon them.

The example here given probably dates from about 1500 to 1520; it is in

MAI0L1 BINDING, ITALIAN, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY,

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS.

179

smooth dark green morocco, ornamented with gold and blind-tooling. A small copy
of Petrarch, printed by Aldus in 1501, now in the Editor's collection, appears to
be in a contemporary binding of white vellum, gold-tooled in a beautiful arabesque
design. The edges of the leaves are also beautifully gauffered and coloured. Some
of the tooling is "azured,1" i.e., lined. On earlier examples of Aldine binding the
tools are solid.

These are, of course, publishers'
bindings, and are not so costly as the
special bindings made for great per-
sonages, but they are no whit less
interesting on that account ; a binding
bearing the golden ornaments of Aldus
carries with it associations more pleasing
even than one bearing the generous motto
of Maioli, or the equivocal emblems of
Henry II. and Dianne de Poy tiers.

(c. 1500 — IS49-) Thommaso Maioli
is now known to fame only as a col-
lector of books. He came of a family
of collectors ; his father, or as some
say, his uncle, Michele Maioli, was a
bibliophile, and exercised great taste
in the selection of the designs for his
bindings. Following the tradition of all
true book-lovers, Maioli offered the en-
joyment of his library to his friends.
"Tho. Maioli et amicorum." were
the generous words he inscribed upon
the covers of books ; but he occasionally
modified the enthusiasm of his friend-
ship by a sceptical distich, " Ingratis
SERVIRE NEPHAS." The motto " PORTIO
MEA DOMINE SIT IN TERRA VIVEN-
TIUM." is found on one of his book-
bindings.

Maioli used another curious motto, " Inimici MEI MEA MICHI, NON ME MICHI." ;
and sometimes a monogram composed of all the letters of his name, with the addition
of E. and P., was placed on books which came to him ready bound. His bindings
are generally in very good taste ; the style of ornament is borrowed from the East, but
considerably modified by Italian influence. There is generally more freedom in the
drawing than, is usual upon the bindings of Grolier, Maioli's great French contemporary.

Broad lines, edged with gold, running in graceful curves or curiously interlaced, form

GROLIER BINDING, FRENCH, EARLY SIXTEENTH
CENTURY.

i8o A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

the leading features of the ornaments, while slender sprays of conventional foliage
and dots of gold add richness and elegance to designs which without these additions
might appear too formal.

Maioli often affected white on a dark background for his bindings. That is to
say, he placed scrolls and foliage in white, edged with gold, upon the dark leather sides
of his bindings.

(1479— 1565.) Similar in style are the very numerous bindings from the library
of the king of French bibliophiles, Jean Grolier de Servin, Vicomte d'Aiguise, famous
throughout Europe for his love of books, and especially of beautiful bookbindings.
The Groliers were originally of Verona. The first member of this family who came
to France, at the commencement of the thirteenth century, was J6rome Grolier, whose
sons Etienne and Antoine took part in the war against the Albigenses (1209 — 1218),
and finally settled at Lyons.1

Born at Lyons in 1479, Jean Grolier had the good luck to succeed his father,
Stephen Grolier, treasurer to the Duke of Milan. He became in time Minister of
Finance to the kings of France, and accompanied Francis I. on his expedition into
Italy. Louis XII. sent him to Milan, and Francis I. promoted him to a military
command there. Thence he was sent ambassador to Rome. In Venice he became
acquainted with Aldus, and with the group of scholars and artists who composed the
Venetian Academy. Upon his return to France, in 1535, he was made one of the four
treasurers of the Government, an office which he continued to hold during the successive
reigns of Francis I., Henry II., Francis II., and Charles IX. He died in Paris on
October 22nd, 1565, aged eighty-six years.2 He numbered among his friends the
learned Budceus, Rhodiginus, and Erasmus, the artistic Geoffroy Tory and Estienne
de Laulne, and the accomplished Christophe De Thou, who on one occasion defended
his friend's honour before the Public Assembly.

Vigneuil de Malville remarked of Grolier's bindings that they were " gilt with
a delicacy unknown before to the binders of his time. He was so much the amateur
of good editions, that he possessed all those of Aldus, who was his friend. He had
his books bound in his own house, under his own eye, and he disdained not at times
to put his own hand to them." 3

" It was in Paris," writes M. Bouchot, " that, in the leisure of his financial functions,
between two projects of revictualling the forts of Outre Seine and Yonne, Grolier
invented combinations, sought interfacings, and laid out foliage. Tory himself teaches
us these works in combination. He invented antique letters for Grolier, he tells us in
his ' Champfleury.' It was for him, too, that he interwove so finely his compartments
for binding, and that he reproduced the delightful ornaments of his Books of Hours
in golden scrolls." 4 Nevertheless it should be remembered that Jean Grolier was

1 " Recherches sur Jean Grolier," par M. Le Roux de Lincy. Paris, i860.

2 The Bookbinder , vol. i., p. 72.

3 Vigneuil de Malville, "Melanges de Litterature."

4 H. Bouchot, 'The Printed Book," p. 261. Ed. E. C. Bigmore.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS. 1S1

not a bookbinder ; he was an amateur, and being endowed with consummate taste, and
almost unlimited wealth, he rode his hobby well.

Grolier's bookbindings belong to two distinct classes — those which were made

GROLIER BINDING. FRENCH, EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

expressly for him, and those not made expressly for him, but judged worthy of
a place in his library ; for the sake of convenience they may be arranged in five
sub-classes : —

i. Geometrical ornaments in compartments gilt, with scrolls in full gold.

i82 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

2. The same with scrolls azures — i.e., equally gilt, but having parallel lines like the
azure of heraldry.

3. Gilt compartments ornamented in the style of Geoffroy Tory.

4. Polychromatic bindings, in which by the aid of colour or mastic the alternating
tones are mixed. These are nearly all of Italian origin.

5. Polychromatic bindings, sometimes called Mosaic, said to be composed of small
pieces of leather glued to the cover.1

Without doubt many of Grolier's books were expressly bound for him in Venice,
others apparently in France, made chiefly between 1540 and 1556, resemble the
bindings done for Henry II. "Those of the latter kind," writes Mr. Quaritch, "are
really the most beautiful specimens of Grolieresque work, the designs being more free
and flowing, the lines not double but single, and their graceful interlacements diversified
by fleurons and small azure ornaments effectively interspersed. He did not, however,
abandon the older geometrical style, with its masses of thick black parallel involutions
outlined in gold ; for we find books of his, equally late in date with examples of the
French kind, decorated in the Italian manner. Whether he had them done in Italy,
or at Lyons, or Paiis, we have no means of knowing ; but the complete identity of
treatment between those and the work contemporaneously done at Venice for Maioli,
makes it probable that all the more luxuriously embellished volumes were still bound
for him in Venice down to the end."2

At different periods of his life Grolier placed different mottoes upon his books. The
most usual and best known inscription bore the generous words — ■

" Io Grolierii et Amicorum,"
or else —

" Mei Grolierii Lugdunens. et amicorum,"

imitated perhaps from his friend Maioli. Sometimes this motto is found tooled on the
bindings ; sometimes written with his own hand on one of the pages.

In early life (1501 — 151 5) he sometimes added an emblem, as on the copy of
Lucretius dated 1501. A hand issuing out of a cloud grasping an iron nail driven
into the summit of a hillock, and upon the label which surmounts the emblem are
the words ^EQUE DIFFICULTER. Later, when success had overcome the difficulties
of his earlier life, he adopted the words of the Psalmist : —

" PORTIO MEA DOMINE SIT IN TERRA VIVENTIUM."

Occasionally the arms of Grolier may be found inside the cover of a book — azure
three bezants or, surmounted by three stars of the same. Crest, a gooseberry-bush with
the motto " Nee Jierba nee arbor" in allusion to his name ; the French word for
gooseberry-bush being groseillier, in pronunciation somewhat like his own name, for the

1 We have never seen a Grolier Mosaic binding, but accept the statement of a writer in The
Bookbinder, who appears to write from personal observation.— Ed.

2 B. Quaritch, "A Short History of Bookbinding."

BINDING OF AN ITALIAN MS.

RED MOROCCO, GOLD TOOLED IN ARABESQUE DESIGN.

ARMS OF A CARDINAL.

(From the original in South Kensington Museum J

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS. 1S3

old heralds dearly loved a pun. After his marriage he impaled his own arms with
those of his wife Anne Briconnet.

Another motto used so early as 1499 upon the binding of the Poliphilo runs :—

" CUSTODIT DOMINUS OMNES DILIGENTES SE ET OMNES IMPIOS DISPERDET."

Upon a copy of the Cortegiano, printed in 1528, occurs the motto : —

"Tamquam ventus est vita mea."

When the Treasurer of Outre Seine returned to Paris in 1535, he settled in a house
near the Porte de Bucy, and became intimate with Geoffroy Tory, the most skilful
designer of his day, at once painter, engraver, printer, and bookbinder, and with
Estienne de Laulne, the celebrated goldsmith and engraver, who assisted him with the
coinage in the reign of Henry II. This combination produced the most beautiful book-
bindings, unsurpassed and almost without rival in the century to which they belonged.

Grolier is credited with two innovations : the first, that of lettering the title upon
the back of his books and placing them upon the shelves back foremost, according to the
present fashion, instead of edges foremost, according to the old plan ; the second, the
use of morocco leather for binding. He obtained the finest morocco from the Levant
or Africa through his friend Jehan Colombel, the rich merchant of Avignon.

During his long life Grolier collected a library of about eight thousand volumes,
mostly of classical and Italian authors. A large portion of this library lay neglected at
the Hotel de Vic from the time of Grolier's death till 1676, when his descendants sold
it by auction. Books bearing Grolier's mottoes are now highly valued, and this has led
to many forgeries being attempted ; but it is not difficult to detect a genuine from a
spurious Grolier. There are over twenty Groliers in the British Museum, several in
the Spencer Library, and also in the library of Dublin University.

If Venice first took the lead of the Italian cities with regard to decorative
bookbinding, Rome, Florence, Bologna, and Ferrara by no means neglected the new
and brilliant art. At first the plain style of the earlier Venetian examples was imitated,
but these were quickly followed by bindings gorgeous in gold and gaudy in colour.
Sometimes the bindings presented the appearance of metal plates, so completely was
the leather covered with gold. This outburst of barbaric splendour naturally brought
about a reaction and a speedy decline in the art. A modern author lays special stress
on the contrast presented by these glittering vanities and the plainer examples of
decorative bookbinding produced contemporaneously in Paris. The less pretentious
Italian gold-tooled binding, however, was of high artistic quality.

It was about this period (early sixteenth century) that the beautiful cameo bindings
became fashionable in Italy. Many bindings appear to have been ornamented in this
way in Venice between 1540 and 1560. Most of the Italian cameos were copies of
antique gems in a sort of lacquer painted, and glued in a recess on the sides of the
bindings, while the French imitations are made by stamping the leather in relief. The
most famous Italian examples are those associated with the name of Demetrio Canevari.

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

In the centre of the sides of these bindings is an oval embossed medallion (of which
there are at least two varieties) in gold, silver, and colours, but others are self-coloured,
representing Pegasus on a rock with Apollo driving his chariot over the waves
towards him, and surrounded by the inscription —

" opens kai mh AOxins."

These books cannot have been bound for Demetrio Canevari, physician to Pope

Urban VII. (1590), since he was born in
1559, and most of the bindings belong to
a period ten or twenty years earlier ; but
they were in his library at Rome early in
the seventeenth century, and probably
were inherited by him from a relative,
though whether or not that relative was
Mecenate, as hinted by Libri and Quaritch,
we cannot say. Canevari's library remained
at Genoa till 1823.

Another curious Italian medallion is
that representing an eagle soaring up-
wards, above rocks, and the sea with fish
swimming in it ; the whole being sur-
rounded by a ribbon bearing the motto
PROCUL ESTE. At the top of the same side
are stamped the words COSMOGRAPHIA
PTOLEMAEI (evidently meant for the title
of the book), and below the name APLLONII
PHILARETI (British Museum).

The illustration represents a brilliant
French cameo binding. The heads are por-
traits of Marcus Cato and Marcus Tul-
lius (Cicero). They are stamped in gold.

Besides those already named, there

were many other collectors in Italy, and

c much of binding done in that country in

FRENCH BINDING IN GILT CALF DECORATED WITH CAMEOS & J

in gold, c. 1554, upon " francisci petrarchje the early part of the sixteenth century has
opera omnia." (much reduced.) more artistic merit than the greatly lauded

(From the British Museum.) French gold_tooling But we must now

leave the land of the nativity of Renaissance gold-tooling and return to France.

(1480 — IS33-) French kings1 and nobles were not backward in following the
example of the Treasurer of Outre Seine. Geoffroy Tory, who designed for Grolier,

1 The chief authority upon armorial bearings and heraldic devices upon bookbindings is M. J.
Guigard ; see "Armorial du Bibliophile," 2 vols. 8vo (1S70-73).

1 86 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

was himself a lover of beautiful books and bookbindings. For his own library he
designed some bindings in which he introduced his well-known device the "pot cass/"
or broken vase. A fine example may be seen upon a volume of Petrarch, printed at
Venice in 1525, now. in the British Museum. The "pot casse"' device was first adopted
by Tory in 1522, soon after the death of his little daughter Agnes, and symbolises her
career cut short ; but it has a general as well as a particular significance. Sometimes the
wimble, called in French tort, is added, the bow forming with the shaft, a J, a punning
allusion to the name Tory. Another example in the collection of M. A. F. Didot has
upon the back the crowned F and salamander of Francis I., in whose library the book
seems to have been. Geoffroy Tory died in the year 1533.

At this time — i.e., between 1520 and 1558 — some fine bindings in the Grolier style
were made for the library of the Emperor Charles V. The illustration on p. 185 is taken
from a morocco binding in the Imperial Library, Vienna. Upon the obverse the
emperor's device " The Pillars of Hercules," with the motto " Ne plus ultra," form part
of the design ; upon the reverse the imperial eagle appears in the centre of the cover.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century some roughly decorated Gothic bindings
had been made for Louis XII. and his queen, Anne de Bretagne. The ornament
consists of the arms of France — three fleurs-de-lis on a crowned shield, ermine, and
porcupines, the latter being Louis' badge. Guillaume Eustace was binder in ordinary
to Louis XII., but there are few bindings which can be attributed with certainty to this
artist. " Personal observation," writes M. Gruel, " leads me to believe that this binder,
who was at the same time sworn printer to the University, introduced into his bindings
religious scenes and ornaments similar to those which he used in the composition of his
Books of Hours." When a bachelor, Louis used upon his bookbindings the motto : —

" NON UTITUR ACULEO REGINA CUI PAREMUS."

After his marriage the initials L. A. appear, and the motto : —

" COMINUS ET EMINUS."

(1515 — 1547.) In Francis I. Grolier found a disciple almost as enthusiastic as him-
self. Many of the earlier volumes bound for this monarch did not display much taste,
differing only according to the styles of the countries in which they were bound. With
the exception of presents and a few favourite works, all his Latin, Italian, and French
manuscripts were bound with dark leather. His Greek manuscripts were partly bound in
the Oriental style, and partly in various coloured moroccos, with smooth backs and no
bands. They are distinguished by the arms of France, the king's badge, a salamander

attached to the collar of St. Michael, and the initial W( crowned, stamped in gold or

F

silver. Upon a few bindings dolphins appear among the ornaments, and are said

to indicate that they were bound when Francis was the Dauphin.1

During this reign Verard and Vostre, the booksellers, were also binders ; but Pierre

1 " Hssai Hislorique sur la Bibliotheque du Roi," p. 24.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS.

Roffet was the royal bookbinder, as is proved by his name figuring in accounts that
have been preserved. Philipe Le Noir and Guyot Merchant also appear to have been

BINDING OF A MANUSCRIPT OF " RELATIONS DES FUNERAILLES d'aNNE DE BRETAGNE, ' WHOSE AMIS AND
INITIALS IT BEARS, C. 1550-

royal workmen. At one time Estienne Roffet (called Le Faulcheur) and Philipe Le
Noir alone bore the title of Relieurs ordinaires du roi.

After I 540, some volumes were bound for Francis in a splendid style, rich in gold

1 88 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

and colour, contrasting strongly with the earlier work done for him by Etienne Roffet.1
An exceedingly fine arabesque binding belonging to this king appears upon a Bible
printed by R. Estienne at Paris, 1538 — 1540.2

To the steady and continued support of her kings and wealthy men may be
attributed the high position which the binders of France for a long period occupied.
During the sixteenth century their [superiority was so generally acknowledged that their
productions were exported all over Europe, and are stilllpreserved in the great English
and Continental libraries, where|they bear_<a silent testimony to the skill of the workmen

BINDING WITH THE ARMS OF HENRY II. OF FRANCE, AND THE MONOGRAM OF DIANNE DE POYTIERS AND HENRY II.

(With the monogram No. 2.)

who made them, of the artists who designed them, and of the judgment of the collectors
for whom they were made.

(1547 — ISS9-) It was during the short reign of Henry II. that the golden age of
French bookbinding arrived at its zenith. Jean Grolier was collecting, and the king's
unknown binder was producing some of the most tasteful designs the world had ever
seen ; Dianne de Poytiers, Queen Catherine dei Medici, and a host of minor patrons
were vying with each other in encouraging the leading artists of the time to invent fresh
and graceful designs for their book-covers.

The influence of Geoffroy Tory then made itself felt, although he himself had died

1 M. B. Quaritch, " A Short History of Bookbinding."

2 " La Reliure Francaise," par M. Marius-Michel. 1880.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS. i8q

in 1533. According to Mr. Quaritch, the earliest appearance of the so-called Franco-
Grolieresque on Grolier's books was about the year 1540, while the style was not adopted
by other book-collectors till about 1555, when we find it used for some of Henry II.'s
volumes, and it was only from 1560 to 1575 that it passed into general use in Paris.

Books bound for Henry II. and his beautiful and accomplished mistress, Dianne de
Poytiers, are distinguished by the emblems of the divine huntress— bows, arrows, quivers,
and the crescent moon arranged in combination with graceful lines.

Henry II. used four monograms upon his bookbindings :—

1. A large H with two linked C's.

2. A large H with two linked D's.

3. A large H with a crescent piercing the central bar of the H.

4. A small H with two linked crescents, usually crowned.

The first may have been intended for himself and his queen. The second, although
said to have been used by the queen, and even embroidered on the royal petticoat, is
more usually associated with the name of the king's mistress. M. Marius-Michel,
and some other modern writers, say that Henry II., without scruple, blended the initial
of his mistress' name with that of his own, and that there is no ambiguity about the
double D.1 It would perhaps be nearer the truth to say that the lady without scruple
adopted the initial H, and blended it with her own initial D. Be that as it may, the
cipher of the double D and H appears upon the walls and furniture of Dianne's castle of
Anet, as well as upon the beautiful bindings bearing her emblems of the chase. The
fourth monogram is smaller than the others, and of inferior design ; it frequently occurs
upon bindings with the bows and other emblems of Diana ; it is usually crowned. Both
the queen and the royal mistress adopted the crescent emblem.

(1499 — 1566.) Dianne de Poytiers, created Duchesse de Valentinois, was the
daughter of Jean de Poytiers, Seigneur de Saint Vallier ; she was born in the year
1499, and at the age of thirteen married Louis de Breze, grand senechal of Normandy.
Louis died young, and soon afterwards Dianne became the mistress of the Due d'Orleans,
better known as Henry II. of France. During the king's life this most accomplished
woman did all in her power to promote a taste for books, and especially for highly
ornamented bookbinding. After the king's death, in 1559, Dianne was exposed to
the hatred of the queen, and forsaken by all the courtiers, except the Constable Mont-
morency, who, like a true knight, befriended the lady in dire distress, and advised her to
retire to her castle of Anet in Normandy, where she resided until the time of her death,
and where she founded several almshouses, probably as an atonement for the frailty of
her youth.2

In 1 53 1, after the death of her husband, Dianne placed upon her book-covers her
emblem, an arrow, surrounded by laurel branches rising from a tomb, and the motto
" SOLA VIVIT IN ILLO." Next, after she became the friend of the Due d'Orleans, the
tomb disappeared, and the motto was modified to " SOLA VIVAT IN ILLA." Two other

1 M. Marius-Michel, " La Reliure Francaise," p. 63.

2 " Le Bibliophile Francais," vol. iii., p. 292.

190

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

mottoes were occasionally used by the royal mistress in later life : " DONEC TOTUM
IMPLEAT ORBEM," and " CONSEQUITUR QUODCUMQUE PETIT."

In addition to these mottoes, the usual emblems of the goddess Diana, and the

BINDING DISPLAYING THE ARMS OF ANNE DE MONTMORENCY, CONSTABLE OF FRANCE, C. IC60.

equivocal monograms, the Duchesse de Valentinois sometimes added her arms upon a
lozenge surmounted by a coronet. These arms consist of those of Breze and St. Villier
party per pale, and may be described roughly as follows : —

Azure eight crosses or, around a double tressure or, for Brfet,

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS. 191

Quarterly 1st and 4th azure six besants argent, a chief or, for Saint Villier.

2nd argent powdered with fleurs-de-lys borderwise, gules three crescents or,

1 and 2.

3rd per fesse indented argent and sable, for Ruffi.

The library of the royal mistress was large ; several famous collections had been
added to it by the king. Dianne died in 1 566, but during the years of her retirement
at the castle of Anet, she still indulged her taste for fine bindings, though not to the
same extent as when the king's purse was at her disposal. Till the year 1723 Dianne's
famous library remained at Anet ; in that year it was sold by auction by the heirs of
the Princess de Conde. It is believed that Dianne suggested that a copy of every
book to which the royal privilege extended should be printed on vellum, handsomely
bound, and presented to the royal library. This was actually commanded by an edict
bearing date 1556, and it led to the great enrichment of the French national collection,
to which library the majority of the books belonging to Henry and Dianne eventually
found their way ; but some beautiful specimens are still in private hands, or treasured
in great public libraries of Europe. A copy of the " Cosmography " of Sebastian
Munster in the public library at Caen is a well-known example. It contains two
portraits of Henry II., and four representations of Holofernes on each side of the
binding. In the centre of the sides are the usual emblems, but on the back are fine
portraits of Diana, in gilt, each within the bands. Two of them are faced by portraits
of Henry. There are also on the sides two pretty medallions of a winged figure
blowing a trumpet, and standing in a chariot drawn by four horses. This binding
is dated 1553.

A very fine folio binding in the Paris National Library has in the centre of each
side a painted medallion, representing the goddess Diana and her hounds hunting in a
thicket ; another binding in white calf, ornamented with black lines edged with silver,
bears all the emblems of Diana grouped most gracefully around three interlaced
crescents. This example is on the cover of a folio of Vitruvius, 1 547, in the Bodleian.
In the same library, upon a missal printed in 1549, is an elaborate binding ornamented
with gold and colour, and bearing the motto " DONEC TOTU IMPLEAT ORBEM." The
three linked crescents and the royal monogram, composed of H and two crescents
(No. 4), appear on both sides of the cover.

In the British Museum may be seen a binding of " M. Moschopuli de ratione
examinandse orationis libellus," 1 545, ornamented with interlaced crescents, fleurs-de-lis,
and the monogram D. H, and bearing in the centre of a panel, formed by a border
of corded pattern, the arms of the king, a crescent, and his initial, are enclosed by
bows tied together. Also upon a Bembo, " Historia Veneta," 1551, a binding having in
the centre of each cover, on a panel of inlaid olive leather, the arms of Henry II.
of France, his initial, and a crescent, surrounded by a border formed of bows. At
the sides are interlaced crescents, the crowned H, and Dianne's monogram.

In the same collection, upon a copy of "Costumes du Bailliage de Sens," 1556, is a
binding ornamented with a design in black, edged with gold and relieved with coloured

192 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

rosettes and flourishes ; in the centre of each cover is a medallion portrait of Henry II.
of France. A similar binding is preserved at the Bodleian Library.

Another example, a tiny duodecimo in the Bodleian, is covered in brown
leather delicately tooled and coloured ; in a central panel are the arms of France
above, and the three crescents below. The probable date is about 1555.

(15 19— 1589.) The Queen Catherine dei Medici, who was the daughter of
Lorenzo Due d'Urbino, a grandson of the great Lorenzo dei Medici, inherited a taste
for fine bindings, and is said to have called to her aid Florentine bookbinders, who
produced some gorgeous examples of decoration with the Medici arms and her own
linked C's and monogram. Some of the later bindings of this queen, covered in white
calf and delicately tooled with golden flowers, are exceedingly fine. The queen's
library contained more than 4,000 printed volumes beside manuscripts. In 1599, at
De Thou's suggestion, this library was by Act of Parliament included in that of the
royal library, and the greater part of it is now in the Bibliotheque Nationale.

The German Count Mansfeldt, prisoner of war in France for five years of this
period, had some beautiful bindings made for him in Paris in the Italo-Grolieresque
style, with his arms, name, and motto placed upon the sides.

The Grolier style found imitators in Ghent, Bruges, and Antwerp, and adaptations
made their appearance at the court of Edward VI. in England (see Chap. XIV.).

Among the French nobles who favoured the Italo-Grolieresque style were the
young Valois, Louis de Sainte Maure, Marquis of Nesle, and Henri de Guise, called " Le
balafre." Marc Lauwrin, of Watervliet, near Bruges, assumed the motto " LAURINI ET
AMICORUM," and sometimes added "VlRTUS IN ARDUO."

(1559 — 1560.) The few books bound for Francis II. are marked with F. and II.
and the arms of France ; some of them have the addition of the initials of Charles IX.,
from which circumstance it appears likely the books were only partly finished at the
death of Francis. Before he became king his books were stamped with a golden
dolphin, and after his marriage with Mary Queen of Scots in 1558 he us^d a monogram
in which his own and the queen's initials were united.

About this time the binders of Lyons were doing some exceedingly fine work. A
little later, both at Lyons and Venice, some large-sized stamps were used to imitate
the hand-work, but at the same time with the object of cheapening the production.

(1560 — 1574.) The reign of Charles IX. was marked by the rise of the Eve family.
The Massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572) is popularly supposed to account for the
sudden disappearance of Henry II.'s chief bookbinder, who is said to have been a
Lyonese Huguenot, Lyons being the hotbed for artists, bookbinders, and heretics.
Three other artists who adorned the king's books also ceased work at that time.
Charles for his cipher interwove two C's, and sometimes added a K ; these letters are
crowned, and the arms of France are generally placed in the centre of the sides,
occasionally also two pillars joined with a label, on which are the words, " PlETATE ET
JUSTITIA."

Nicholas Eve's earliest work is said to have been done for Dianne de Poytiers

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS.

193

about 1565. He or his son Clovis worked for Charles IX. in 1569. At first Nicholas
produced geometrical designs, graceful but plain ; after a time he filled the spaces

BINDING SAID TO HAVE BEEN EXECUTED BY NICHOLAS EVE FOR ETIENNE DE NULLY, WHOSE
ARMS AND MONOGRAM IT BEARS, €. I5S2.

between the geometrical compartments with scrolls, palm branches, and graceful olive
branches.

(1574 — 1589.) The two Eves were living when Henry III., of gloomy memory,

13

i94 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

ascended the throne. Having lost the lady of his choice, the Princess Conde, the young
monarch developed a taste for cemeteries, and things appertaining thereto ; tears,
death's-heads, and cross-bones became his favourite ornaments, and these he had
displayed upon his book-covers, presumably by the Eves.

Nicholas Eve was charged with the binding of the Statutes of the Order of Saint
Esprit, and in Clairambault's manuscripts we read : —

" To Nicholas Eve, washer and binder of books and bookseller to the king,
47i escus for washing, gilding, and squaring the edges of 42 books of Statutes and
Ordinances of the Order, bound and covered with orange, Levant morocco, enriched
on one side with the arms of the king, fully gilt, and on the other of France and
Poland, with monograms at the four corners, and the rest flames, with orange and
blue ribbons," etc.1

The symbol 0 (an "s" with a stroke running through it) seems to have been connected
with the Order of the Saint Esprit {Spiritus Sanctus), since it is many times repeated in an
illuminated manuscript relating to that order, and appears upon the insignia ; it occurs
upon many bindings ornamented in the Eve style, and in conjunction with the monograms
of Catherine dei Medici— P.C., M., R.R., M.D.C.L., and the double triangle (delta) and the
double </> (Greek phi).2 It has also been thought to represent the motto Sovereyne.

The illustration on the previous page represents a beautiful binding of this period,
probably executed by Nicholas Eve for a French statesman named Etienne de Nully,
whose monogram, E. D. N. interlaced, is repeated several times on the sides and back of
the volume. In the centre is his coat-of-arms — argent, a cross fleury vert, between four
billets of the same. The book is a copy of " Les Ordonnances de la Ville de Paris en
1582." Clovis Eve, the brother of Nicholas, bound books for Henry IV. and Louis XIII.

The fanfare style, introduced by Eve, may have been a reaction against the gloomy
bindings so dear to Henry III. The style itself was to a certain extent copied from
Oriental ornament. The name fanfare is quite an arbitrary term, being the name of
a book which a great modern collector is said to have had bound in imitation of one
of De Thou's bindings in this style which he had seen and fancied. The flourishing
name suited the flourishing ornament, and has thus become its natural appellation. So
runs the story. After a time the Eves abandoned the geometrical patterns, using only
the wreaths and palm branches which on the earlier designs were entirely subordinate.

We may here mention a few famous men whose bindings, bearing their arms or
devices, have come down to us. Conspicuous amongst these was the Constable Anne
de Montmorency, who adorned his bindings with a shield bearing his arms and interlaced
ornaments in gold and colours (see p. 190). Then there was Philip Desportes, the poet,
who used two $ inlaced, as did also Superintendent Fouquet in the seventeenth century.

Colbert had a curled snake — a pun upon his name, coluber for Colbert ! The Gondis
used two masses of arms ; Madame de Pompadour, her arms, three towers on a silver

' M. Bouchot, Ed. Bigmore, "The Printed Book," p. 275.

2 See a note by Mr. H. S. Richardson in The British Bookmaker, 1892. For the loan of block
used on p. 195, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Richardson, — Ep,

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS.

195
Cardinal

shield ; and Fouquet, besides the $, used a squirrel on some of his book-covers
Mazarin had his arms stamped upon most of his books.

(1589 — 1610.) Not many bindings for King Henry IV. are now known, and these
few are identified by a golden stamp bearing the arms of France and Navarre sur-
rounded by the collars of the Orders of St. Michael and St. Esprit. It was in this

FRENCH GOLD-TOOLED BINDING IN THE EVE STYLE. MONOGRAM R.R.

(From the collection of H. S. Richardson, Esq.)

reign that it became the fashion to adorn the sides of bindings with powderings of
monograms and emblematic flowers.

(1553— 16 1 7.) The most famous book-collector of Henry IV.'s time, Jacques
Auguste de Thou, was born at Paris on October 8th, 1553. Christophe de Thou,
father of Jacques Auguste, was the first President of the Parliament of Paris, a friend
of Grolier, and a lover of fine editions in handsome bindings. Jacques travelled in his
youth, spending two years in Italy (1572—1 574)- Abiding by the traditions of his house,

ig6 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

he loyally followed Henry III. in his exile from Paris, was rewarded by a seat in the
Council of State, and received an important mission to raise men and money in Italy.
While at Venice, hearing of the king's death, he hastened to meet Henry of Navarre, who
became his friend and made him keeper of the royal library. It is unnecessary to dwell
upon his great work " Historian sui Temporis " and his other books, further than to
record that he was an accomplished author. In 1587 De Thou married Marie de

w.s.B. <Ld.,

ARMS OF PRESIDENT DE THOU AND HIS SECOND WIFE, GASPARDE DE LA CHASTRE.

(From the binding of a folio, A.D. i6ji.)

Barbancon, daughter of Le Sieur de Cani ; and in 1603, his first wife having died a few
years before, he took for his second wife a daughter of the house of La Chastre. In
1610 died King Henry IV., and De Thou lost his best friend. His own death was
hastened by worry and neglect. On the 7th of May, 1617, he expired. The president
had inherited some choice books, including some presented by Grolier, from his father ;
he left his magnificent library, an heirloom in his family, to his eldest son, who was
beheaded at Lyons in 1642. His third son next possessed the library, and added to it
the collection of his father-in-law Huges Picardet, and stamped the covers of his books

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS.

1 97

with the arms of De Thou and Picardet until he was made Baron de Meslay in 1660,
when he assumed a baron's coronet and the motto " MANE NOBISCUM DOMINE." He

BINDING BY CLOVIS EVE FOR J. A. DE THOU, WITH HIS COAT-OF-ARMS AS USED BEFORE HIS FIRST MARRIAGE.

died in 1677. In 1680 the library was sold, and, after passing through various hands,
a great portion of it finally reached the British Museum.

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

De Thou adopted a plain and substantial style for his bindings ; morocco dyed red,
green, and lemon, fawn-coloured calf, or white vellum being his favourite materials.
The majority of his bindings are plain, adorned only with a gold armorial stamp in the
centre ; but for choice books he preferred an elaborate gold ornament in the fanfare
style of the Eves — a style open' to adverse criticism on the score of mechanicalism and

lack of freedom, but to be commended for
the wonderful accuracy and precision of the
tooling and the delicacy of the individual
tools.

In his bachelor days (1572 — 1587) De
Thou placed upon his books his arms in silver
or gold : Argent a chevron sable, three gadflies
of the same, two in chief, one in point ; and
sometimes his name, fac. August. Thuanus,
sometimes his monogram I. A. D. T. and a
Greek 6 (th) below the arms.

During his first wife's lifetime, and after-
wards (1587 — 1603), two shields were used,
his own and that of his wife, Marie de Bar-
ban^on : gules three lions crowned argent.
The initials I. A. and M.— for Jacques Auguste
and Marie — in a monogram were placed be-
low, and sometimes upon the back his own
initials, A. D. T.

After the death of Marie, in 1601, Auguste
paid a graceful tribute to her memory by
placing her initials interlaced with his own
upon his books. After his second marriage
with Gasparde de la Chastre, in 1603, the
arms and numerous quarterings of the La
Chastre or De Bourdeilles family replaced
those of the Barbancon in the sinister shield,
and the letter G (Gasparde) was substituted
for the M (Marie). So the monogram became
I. A. G. T.

The illustration on page 196 of the
stamp used by De Thou in later life is taken
from the binding of a folio of Peter Kirsten's " Notse," 161 1, in the Editor's collection ;
this stamp is more elaborate than that used upon books of smaller size. De Thou
sometimes had his books ornamented in the Grolier style.1

1 In "La Reliure Ancienne et Moderne," par G. Brunet, 1878, is an engraving of a binding in
this style, bearing the arms of De Thou and his second wife.

BINDING FROM THE COLLECTION OF PRESIDENT DE THOU,
WITH HIS COAT-OF-ARHS AS USED BEFORE HIS FIRST
MARRIAGE.

(From the Spencer Library.)

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS. 199

In the British Museum several magnificent specimens of bindings, bearing the
arms of De Thou and decoration in the style of the Eves, are exhibited, and at the
Bodleian there is one. The engraving is from the binding of a Stephens' " Greek
Testament," in the Spencer Library.

When De Thou was master of the royal collection, many of the books were bound
under his direction in red morocco with the arms and initials of the king. On some we
read the following inscription : " Henrici II 1 1. Patris Patriae Virtutum Restitutoris." 1

(1552 — 161 5.) Marguerite de Valois, daughter of Henry II., affected a dainty design
of daisies and other flowers, each placed within an oval compartment surrounded by
leafy branches, and in the centre the Valois shield. Clovis Eve is supposed to have
been the binder of these pretty volumes. There is another claimant for some of the
books, usually assigned to this lady, in the person of Marie-Marguerite de Valois de
Saint- Remy, daughter of a natural son of Henry III. It is said that these bindings
are to be distinguished by a stamp bearing the Valois shield — three fleurs-de-lis on
a fess on one side, and on the other the motto, " ExPECTATA NON ELUDET." 2

About 1625 a new style of ornament arose in Paris, the style called pointille, and
associated with the names of Le Gascon and Florimond Badier. It consists of graceful
curved lines produced by the repetition of countless golden dots or points, each dot being
produced by a separate application of a tool. These pointille ornaments were at first
arranged in the compartments of the geometrical designs associated with the Eve style ;
but gradually the geometrical design was omitted, and the pointille ornament alone
remained as a border round the edge or as a centre-piece, the rest of the side being left
quite plain.

Mr. Quaritch supposes Le Gascon to have been a workman in the employ of the
Eves, and to have continued the traditions of those masters after he left their service.

Monsieur Leon Gruel thinks that Florimond Badier may have been the real name
of the binder so well known under the sobriquet of Le Gascon, and as a proof urges the
great resemblance between the signed work of Badier and the designs usually attributed
to Le Gascon.

The bindings in this style are generally covered in red morocco, and the general
effect of the innumerable gold dots on the scarlet ground is brilliant in the extreme ;
but upon close examination it appears that the dots are arranged in exquisitely fine
convolutions and arabesque designs.

The pointille decoration was too expensive and laborious to remain long in fashion.
It was imitated by various mechanical processes, and died out in France about 1660.
Le Gascon himself disappears soon after 1650.

Le Gascon is best known by the binding of a presentation copy of " La Guirlande
de Julie," worked by him for Mademoiselle de Rambouillet, which brought him great
honour.

Mace Ruette, the reputed inventor of marbled paper and marbled morocco,

1 "Hist, sur la Bibliotheque du Roi," p. 35.

- See M. Joannes Guigard, "Armorial du Bibliophile."

200 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

flourished between 1606 and 1638. Ruette, however, was not the inventor of this kind of
ornament, but he may have introduced it into France. Marbling is of Eastern origin,
and is known to have been practised in the latter part of the sixteenth century.

It was at this period — that is, in the seventeenth century — that the gaufreurs of shoe
leather in Paris also ornamented bookbindings. The gallants of those days, instead
of having their shoes plastered over with blacking, destructive to the leather and
abominably dirty, employed skilled workmen to tool fanciful designs in gold upon the
well-dressed leather " uppers." An ordinary binder was not his own gilder ; he
employed the gaufreurs to work for him. An edict was passed in 1686 that binders of
books should live in the precincts of the University and employ only authorised workmen.

Among the artists in gold-tooling, M. Bouchot narrates, was one named
Pigorreau, whom the edict found living in the midst of publishers and working for
them. He was compelled to choose either to remain a bootmaker or become a
bookseller ; he chose the latter, in spite of the syndics of the trade, in spite of every one,
and he made himself enemies. Pigorreau was a wag, and he revenged himself on his
persecutors by ridiculing them on a placard.

Cardinal Mazarin and Gaston d'Orleans employed Le Gascon, or his imitators.
The arms of the former, generally placed in the centre of the sides, are easily dis-
tinguished. They consist of a shield, bearing a bar charged with three mullets, over
a Roman axe ; above the shield is a cardinal's hat, and in the border around the motto
" ARMA IVLII ORNANT FRANCIAM." The same device appears upon a beautiful
embroidered binding, figured in " L'Album de la Reliure," by M. G. Brunet.

Florimond Badier was appointed bookseller in 1645. His name appears in full
at the bottom of an inlaid morocco binding in the National Library at Paris :
Florimond Badier, fee, in. The book, a copy of " De Imitatione Christi," is dated
Paris, Imprimerie Roy ale, 1640. The inlays of this period differed entirely from the
mosaics of the eighteenth century ; they always formed a groundwork, and the tooling
was placed upon them.

Cardinal Richelieu was another patron of sumptuous bindings. His arms and
motto " His FULTA MANEBUNT," occur on many bindings.

The brothers Jacques and Pierre Dupuy displayed much taste in their bindings.
Sometimes we find their arms stamped upon the leather, but more often a double triangle
(two Greek A), forming a star, and two interlaced $ (the Greek phi), and the g.

The "collector Mornay placed the Greek $ between two C's facing one another, which
device he adopted for himself and his wife, Charlotte d Arbaleste.

(1679 — 1715.) In the reign of Louis XIV., for the first time in the history of the
craft, the bookbinders were separated from the booksellers ; by the edict of 1686 they
had their own organisation, but remained subject to the University, and were still
surrounded by all kinds of precautions and regulations, which in these days of freedom
seem unnecessarily exact.

Towards the year 1670, according to Monsieur J. J. Guiffrey,1 we find a number
1 Quoted by M. Bouchot, "The Printed Book," p. 281.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS. 201

of binders engaged upon work for the king, Louis XIV. : Gilles Dubois, who died
before 1670 ; Levasseur, binder of Huet, Bishop of Avranches ; La Tour; Merins,
or Menus, who died before 1676 ; Ruette, the reputed inventor of marbled paper
for fly-leaves of books. It was probably these men who decorated the book-covers
of the brothers Dupuy, Fouquet, and Colbert, bindings remarkable rather on account
of their solidity than of their beauty. Antoine Ruette and Florimond Badier also
were the king's binders.

The two great bibliographers of the time were Jerome Bignon and Gabriel
Naude ; the former, librarian to the king, the latter to Cardinal Onagarius. The
cardinal's library was next to the royal collection in extent and magnificence. Jacob
says it was open every Thursday, from noon till dusk. It contained many valuable
and curious volumes all bound in morocco or calf gilt.

In Jacob's time there were about four hundred manuscripts in folio, bound in
virgin morocco and covered with borders of gold. The President Longueil could
boast of an admirable collection of books, which he was increasing every day,
and the library of Nicolas Chevalier filled the basement and first stories. " This
library," says Jacob, " is one of the most excellent in Paris for the BINDING, which is
all in calf, covered with fleur-de-lis, and gilt upon the edges. There are also some
manuscripts very rare, covered with velvet." He tells us that in the library of Claude
d'Urse, in the castle of Abbatie, there were more than four thousand six hundred
volumes, and among them two hundred manuscripts upon vellum, covered with green
velvet. In the royal library are several works from this collection, bearing the arms of
d'Urse, and splendidly attired. The library of the Arsenal also contained some. Many
other libraries existed. Gui Patin had six thousand volumes. The Dupuys about
eight thousand volumes. Jacques Ribier nearly ten thousand. Cardinal Seve had his
six thousand. From the time of Louis XIII. the books in the royal library ceased
to be distinguished by the different reigns, and the art became altogether degenerate.

In France, as we have shown was the case in this country, the early printers
exercised the art of bookbinding also. Chevalier, in his " History of Printing," states
that Eustace, Eve, and P. le Noir each styled themselves binders to the university, or
the king. Jean Canivet also styled himself, in the year 1 566, Relegator Universitatis}
Two French binders, named Galliard and Portier, were celebrated for improvements
about the end of the sixteenth century.

Were further proof of the talent of French bookbinders necessary, much more
might be produced ; sufficient has been done to substantiate this point. But, frankly
as we admit the superiority of French bookbinders over all others during the sixteenth
century, we hold that in the following century they began to retrograde, and their
bindings to possess no distinctive character. They neglected the illustrious example
set before them by their predecessors, whilst the binders of another country, profiting
by it, bestirred themselves in the acquisition of the true principles of the art, which,

1 Dibdin's " Bib. Dec," ii 482.

202 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

though progressing slowly, may eventually lead to a high degree of excellence in English
bookbinding.

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. — With the eighteenth century the number of French
bookbinders greatly increased, and the mass of material relating to them becomes
gigantic. French bibliographers have collected and arranged this so well that there
is little need for an Englishman to undertake the task anew.

The names of Padeloup, Derome, Le Monnier, Boyet or Boyer, Du Seuil, Douceur,
Auguerrand, and Uubuisson, stand out from among the rank and file of their contem-
poraries. As with the Eves, so with the two first of these names ; they represent each
a dynasty. If the Padeloups were twelve, there were fourteen Deromes, all booksellers
and bookbinders. The most celebrated were Nicolas and Antoine Michel Padeloup
(who died before 1758), and James Anthony Derome, who died in 1761.1

The Boyet family, who attained great celebrity about 1670, survived to 1733.
Some of the books belonging to Colbert and to Louis XIV. (1679 — 1715) were bound
by the Boyets, one of whom is said to have introduced the practice of lining the inner
side of the cover with leather, tooled and decorated as elaborately as the exterior
— in fact, to have popularised the ornamental doublure. Luc-Antoine Boyet flourished
from about 1680 till 1733. From 1698 till his death he was the king's binder; he
was also employed by the Comte d'Hoym, the Marquise de Chamillart, the Baron de
Longepierre, the Abbe Flechier, Colbert, and many other book collectors.

The plainer bindings of this school are neat and strong ; those more expensively
bound generally have a plain fillet or lace-like border, the owner's arms or monogram in
the centre, and small ornaments at the corners. Of this latter kind are the bindings
belonging to the Comte d'Hoym, Polish ambassador to France in 1714. The count
sometimes placed his armorial stamp over that of a former possessor of a volume, so
that bindings made before his time sometimes bear his coat-of-arms ; he possessed a
fine collection of books in beautiful bindings. The Baron de Longepierre, in memory
of the success of his now forgotten play The Medea, caused a golden fleece to be
stamped at the four corners of his bindings (a choice example may be seen at the
British Museum). Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619 — 1683), not only arranged the national
records of France and the royal library, but collected a great library of his own
which his son, the Marquis de Seignelay, inherited, and part of which his grandson sold
to the nation. Colbert's bindings bear his arms, a golden snake. De Seignelay bore
the same arms, but added a coronet of a marquis and the collars of two orders of
knighthood. Colbert employed Boyet as his binder, and furnished him with the
morocco for the bindings, being able to do so on account of a clause in his treaty
with Turkey.

Antoine Padeloup modified Boyet's style in his general bindings ; his more

ambitious essays at mosaic decoration are gorgeous, but barbaric, and entirely

deficient in continuity of design. " If Padeloup had discovered these mediocre

combinations," writes M. Bouchot, " he could not be proclaimed the regenerator of a

1 M. H. Bouchot, " The Printed Book," p. 286.

GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS.

fallen art. The bastard style of these works may be compared to their mosaics —
constructed of pieces ; it is a little of everything and together nothing." l

(1685 — 1758.) Antoine Michel Padeloup was made binder to the king, Louis XV.
(1715 — 1748), in 1733, after Boyet's death; he placed his mark on books belonging
to Queen Maria Leczinska, the Dauphin, D'Hoym, Bonnier de la Mosson, and the
Marquise de Pompadour. Pade-
loup is noted for good solid
binding; the decorations he used,
though poor in conception, are
marvels of careful execution.
He was succeeded as binder to
the king by Louis Douceur.

To this period belonged
Pierre Paul Dubuisson, book-
binder and designer of heraldic
and other gilding tools ; and
De Lorme, a contemporary
of Padeloup, charged by his
countrymen with imitating some
of the bad English binding.
He was binder to the king in
1758, and in 1745 he bound
some books ornamented with
the arms of Queen Marie An-
toinette. The well-bound books
of the Due de la Valliere, which
bear upon their morocco sides
within an ornamental oval the
words, "Ex MUSEO GlRARDOT
DE PREFONDS," are much desired
by collectors. The Valliere
Library contained over twenty
thousand volumes.2

(1673 — 1746.) Augustin
Du Seuil flourished about 17 10
— 1740; he was a native of
Provence, where he was born in 1673. Coming to Paris, he appears to have learned his
art under Philippe Padeloup, whose daughter he married in 1699.3 Louis XV. appointed
Du Seuil royal binder in 17 17, before the death of Louis du Bois, who did not die
till February 1728, when a record brevet was issued ordering the regular appointing

1 M. Bouchot, "The Printed Book," p. 286. 2 Dibdin's "Bib. Dec," ii. 494.

3 Marius-Michel, " La Reliure Francaise," p. 96.

INSTITUTIO SOCIETATIS JESU. ROME, I5S7. MOSAIC WORK BY PADELOUP.

(From the French National Library?)

204 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

of Du Seuil. He held the post until his death in 1746, when he was succeeded by
Pierre Auguerrand.1 Du Seuil's chief merit as a binder was that he reproduced some
of the minor Le Gasconesque features in work of the Boyet type, thus softening the
severity of the latter, and leading the way to Padeloupian licence.2

There are legends in the annals of bookbinding as well as in those of nations, and
one of the most peculiar bibliopegistic legends is that of a mythical Abbe Du Sueil,
Dusseuil, or De Seuil, for no one seems certain about the exact spelling of the name,
who, during the latter part of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the
eighteenth, is supposed to have amused himself by producing dainty book-covers.
He is credited with having written a book, copies of which he bound with his own
hand, and with having a son to whom he bequeathed his own library ; but, strange
to say, the son sold the books before his father's death. These and other points relating
to this personage we must leave to French bibliographers to explain. The abbe seems to
have been created, like the famous " Ex Libris, Esqr." whose book plates are occasionally
advertised, by English catalogue-makers.

The ghostly abbe is said to have bound books in red morocco, with a double row
of rectangular gold lines on the outside, and the figure of a vase at the inner angles
Sometimes the bindings have a double.

The first time he was heard of was in 1724, when the books of Lomenie, Comte de
Brienne, were taken to London and sold by auction at James Woodman's and David
Lyon's shop in Russell Street, Covent Garden, on Tuesday, April 28th, in that
year. In the catalogue it is frequently recorded that the books were bound by the
" Abbe Du Seuil." Louis Henri de Brienne died in 1698.

Now it is probable that the count's heir, when sending the books to the auctioneers,
mentioned that his own part of the collection was bound by A. Du Seuil, the .great
Paris bookbinder, and that the auctioneers' cataloguer amplified A. into Abbe, and took
the statement to refer to some bindings which were really the work of the Boyets, and
had been done for the count's father.3

Alexander Pope immortalised this name in the following lines from " Moral
Essays," where he satirised the fashion supposed to have been adopted from across
the Channel by the mushroom aristocrats, who bought fine bindings, containing not
books, but merely blocks of wood : —

" His study ! with what authors is it stored !
In books, not authors, curious is my lord ;
To all their dated backs he turns you round,
These Aldus printed, those Duseuil has bound.
Lo ! some are vellum, and the rest as good,
For all his lordship knows — but they are wood !
For Locke or Milton 'tis in vain to look ;
These shelves admit not any modern book."4
1 Auguste Jal, " Dictionnaire " (Paris, 1872). 2 Mr. Bernard Quaritch, "Notes."

3 See "Notes on the History of Artistic Bookbinding," by Bernard Quaritch, Nottingham Art
Museum. Special Exhibition of Bookbindings, catalogue, 1891.

4 A. Pope, " Moral Essays," iv.

206 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

To these celebrated names must be added that of I. C. H. le Monnier, who was
warden of his guild in 1744. He was one of a family of bookbinders. He excelled in
inlaid morocco resembling embroidery or designed a la Chinoise. He worked for the
Orleans princes, and was undoubtedly a skilful artist. Monnier's work, always elegant,
frequently fanciful, is now highly esteemed by collectors. At the Beckford Sale, Part I.,
June 30th, 1882, the volume represented in the illustration was sold, for £3 50, by
Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge. The volume is a copy of " Sieur de Breuil.
De limitation de Jesus-Christ," Traduction nouvelle (Paris, 1690). The binding is
in citron morocco, ornamented with variegated inlaid leathers representing Chinese
subjects, grotesque, but of exquisite workmanship ; the double is of olive morocco,
with covered gold-tooling, a petits fers, the fly-leaves are of gold, and the edges
painted and gilt.

Tessier was his successor. We have also the names of N. D. Derome and Francois
La Fert£, who decorated the small volumes of the Due de la Valliere, as Chamot
covered the larger ones. In 1766 Chamot was royal binder. Pierre Auguerrand
(1748— 1777) was succeeded by Biziaux, employed by Madame de Pompadour and
Beaumarchis. A. P. Bradell, who invented temporary bindings without forwarding,
flourished between 1772 and 1809.

Then came a time of the greatest degradation during the period of the Republic ;
it remained till about the year 1830, when a revival commenced, which still continues.
The chief characteristics of modern French work is perfect forwarding and finishing, but
poverty or slavish imitation in design.

The names of Bozeraine, senior and junior, of Thouvenin, Courteval, and Simier
are now almost forgotten ; but Lesne, the poet bookbinder, who invented the style of
plain calf without boards, and wrote a poem in six cantos on the art of bookbinding
which he published in 1820, is still remembered by a few collectors. Bauzonnet,
Purgold, Cape, Duru, Hardy-Meunil, Belz-Niedree, Trautz, Thibaron, Lortie, Marius-
Michel, and Leon Gruel are among the number of distinguished French bookbinders
who have done their best to elevate their art ; and of these M. Gruel and M. Marius-
Michel have written valuable works upon the history of bookbinding in France.

ARABESQUE ORNAMENTS USED BY HANS HOLBEIN, AND SUPPOSED TO HAVE
BEEN BROUGHT BY HIM FROM VENICE.

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CHAPTER XIV.1

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS— BINDINGS IN VELVET, GOLD, SILVER, AND ENAMEL
—ENGLISH GOLD-TOOLED BINDINGS FROM THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII. TO
THAT OF QUEEN ANNE.

N the last chapter the history of bookbinding as practised in France
was traced from the palmy days of the sixteenth century to modern
times. We will now relate what was being done by the bookbinders
of our own country during the same period ; and, first, we must
consider those special bindings which were made for English kings
and queens.

(1461 — 1483, Edward IV.) In the notices left of the time of
Edward IV. we find ample record of the use of silk, also velvet and of gilding, upon
the bindings of books. In the '■ Wardrobe Accounts," A.D. 1480, kept by Piers Courtneys,2
we have many particulars of the cost of bindings, materials used, etc. : —

" To Alice Claver for the making of xvj laces and xvj tasshels for the garnysshing of
divers of the Kinges bookes, ij s. viij d.

" And to Robert Boillett for blac papir and nailles for closyng and fastenyng of
divers cofyns of fyrre wherein the Kinges books were conveyed and caried from the
Kinges grete Warderobe in London unto Eltham aforesaid v d.

" Piers Bauduyn stacioner for bynding, gilding, and dressing of a booke called Titus
Livius xx s. ; for binding, gilding, and dressing of a booke of the Holy Trinite xvj s. ;
for binding, gilding, and dressing of a booke called Frossard xvj s. ; for binding, gilding,
and dressing of a booke called the Bible xvj s. ; for binding, gilding, and dressing of a
booke called Le Gouvernement of Kinges and Princes xvj s. ; for binding and dressing of

1 The head-piece to this chapter is copied from the gilt and gauffered edge of a book from
King Henry VIII. 's collection. The volume is now in the Bodleian Library (H. 2. 5. Th.).

2 "Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York: Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV." (edition
1830). Edited by Sir H. N. Nicolas, pp. 125, 126.

207

2o8 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

thre smalle books of Franche price in grete vj s. viij d. ; for the dressing of two bookes
whereof oon is called La Forteresse de Foy, and the other called the Book of Josephus
iij s. iiij d. ; and for binding, gilding, and dressing of a booke called the Bible Historial
xx s.

" To the saide Peter Baudvin for gilding of an old pair of claspes ij s. ; and for
gilding of an old pair of claspes ij s. ; and for gilding of old bolyons v s."

For the binding of these books another entry is made of the materials used ; from
which it appears that, as in the case of apparel, etc., our kings and nobles procured the
materials and employed workmen to make whatever might be required. " Delyvered
for the coveryng and garnysshyng vj of the Bookes of oure saide Souverain Lorde the
Kynges, that is to say, oon of the Holy Trinite, oon of Titus Lyvius, oon of the
Gouvernal of Kynges and Princes, a Bible, a Bible Historialle, and the vjthe called
Frossard. Velvet, vj yerdes cremysy figured ; corse of silk, ij yerdes di' and a naille
blue silk weying an unce iij q' di' ; iiij yerdes di' di' quarter blac silk weying iij unces ;
laces and tassels of silk, xvj laces ; xvj tassels, weying to gider vj unces and iij q' ;
botons, xvj of blue silk and gold ; claspes of coper and gilt, iij paire smalle with roses
uppon them ; a paire myddelle, ij paire grete with the Kynges Armes uppon them ;
bolions coper and gilt, lxx ; nailes gilt, ccc." ]

And again : " To Alice Claver sylkwoman for an unce of sowing silk xiv d. ; " for
" ij yerds di' and a naille corse of blue silk, weying an unce iij quarters di' price the unce
ij s. viij d. v s. ; for iiij yerds di' of quarter corse of blac silk weying iij unces price the
unce ij s. iiij d. vij s. ; for vj unces and iij quarters of silk to the laces and tassels for
garnysshing of diverse Books price the unce xiiij d. vij s. x d. ob. ; for the making of xvj
laces and xvj tassels made of the said vj unces and iij quarters of silke price in grete ij s.
viij d. and for xvj botons of blue silk and gold price in grete iiij s."

" For the copersmythe for iij paire of claspes of cooper and gilt with roses uppon
them price of every paire iij s. for two paire of claspes of coper and gilt with the Kings
Armes upon them price the pair v s. and for lxx bolyons of coper and gilt xlvj s.
viij d."2

The " velvet cremysyn figured with white " cost the king viij s. per yard.3 The
bolions named were a smaller sort of button, used as fastenings of books, etc., made of
copper and gilt, and cost about eighteenpence each.4 Or they may be the bosses placed
at the four corners, and in the centre of the sides of a binding. At this time the wages
of various workmen were from fourpence to sixpence a day.5

By the above account it is evident that the books belonging to the library of King
Edward IV. were adorned with the best materials then procurable. A leather binding
now in the library of Westminster Abbey bears a stamp of the arms and supporters
of Edward IV. (see p. 139). Succeeding monarchs of this country were not less
interested in the appearance of their libraries, and velvet continued for some time

1 ''Wardrobe Accounts," etc., 152. 3 "Wardrobe Accounts of Edward IV.,'' 116.

2 Ibid., 117, 119. * Ibid., "Notes," by Nicolas.

5 Ibid., Nicolas's " Remarks," ii.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS. 209

to be a favourite and the principal cover for at least such works as were considered
valuable.

(1485 — 1509, HENRY VII.) Among the books originally belonging to Henry VII.
in the British Museum is a very curious book of Indentures in its original binding
(MS. Harl., 1498). The indenture is dated July 10th, in the nineteenth year of his
reign, 1 500, and was made between the king and the abbot and convent of St. Peter's,
Westminster, for the celebration of certain masses, etc., to be performed in Henry VI I. 's
chapel, then about to be built. It is indeed a most notable and curious book ; the
cover is of crimson Genoese velvet, edged with crimson silk and gold thread, and with
tassels of the same material at each corner. The velvet cover is fastened by studs and
rivets only. The inside is lined with crimson damask. On each side of the cover are
five bosses, made of silver, wrought and gilt ; that in the middle has the arms and
supporters of Henry VII., engraved upon silver, gilt and enamelled ; upon the others,
at each corner, are so many portcullises, also gilt and enamelled. It is fastened by
two hasps, made of silver, and splendidly enamelled with the red rose of the house of
Lancaster. The counterpart of these indentures, bound and decorated in all respects
like the original, is preserved in the Public Record Office. In the initial letter the
king is depicted giving the manuscript to the clergy, and the binding itself is accurately
represented in the miniature.1 Attached by silken cords are five impressions of seals,
each contained in a silver box ornamented with the royal badges. Many beautiful
manuscripts from the library of Henry VII. are preserved in the British Museum, but
unfortunately these for the most part have been rebound.

(1509 — 1547, Henry VIII.) In the privy purse expenses of Henry VIII.2 we find
the following entries from the year 1530 to 1532: —

" Paied to Westby clerk of king's closet for vj masse books. And for vellute for
to cov1" them iij 1. xj s.

" To Rasmus one of the Armerars for garnisshing of boks and div's necessaryes for
the same by the king's comaundment, xj 1. v s. vjj d.

" To Peter Scryvener for bying vellum and other stuf for the king's books, iiij 1.

" To the boke-bynder, for bringing of boks fro hamptonco'te to yorke place, iiij s.
viij. d.

" To Asmus the armerer, for the garnisshing of iiij-xx. vj. boks as apperith by his
bille. xxxiiij 1. x s. And paied for sending of certeyne boks to the king's boke-
bynder, ij s."

And in an inventory of the same monarch's Guarde-robe [Wardrobe. French
Garderobe], etc., made by virtue of a commission under the Great Seal of England, dated
at Westminster, September 14th, 1547,3 the following notices occur: "A Massebooke
covered with black velvet, a lytle booke of parchement with prayers covered with

1 Home's "Introduction,'' i. 305.

2 " Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VIII." Edited by Nicolas, Svo, Pickering.

3 MSS. British Museum, No. 1419, A and B.

14

2io A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

crymsen velvet. Also in one deske xxxj bookes covered with redde ; and in another
deske, xvj bookes covered with redde."1

The privy purse expenses of Henry's daughter,2 afterwards Queen Mary, supply
further information as to the materials used and the cost of bindings in the sixteenth
century. In January 1542-43, "was paied to the boke bynder for a boke lymmed
wl golde, the same geuen to the p'nce g'ce for a newyer' gifte, xxix s." In the
following year, " to my ladye Herbert, a boke cou'ed w* silv' and gylt, vij s. vj d. ; and
in 1537, was paid for a claspe for a boke, vj s."

These accounts prove that many costly ornaments were placed upon the covers of
books ; for without the cost of what is properly the binding, it is seen that Rasmus, or
Asmus, who doubtless was the same person, is paid on one occasion, for garnishing
of divers books, £11 ^s. yd.; and on another no less than £34 10s., for garnishing
eighty-six books, about 8s. each for the mere embellishment of them, which we take
to mean fixing the clasps, bosses, etc., to the sides. The splendour of some of these
bindings may be gathered from John Skelton, the poet laureate 3 of that period, who,
speaking of a book, and enraptured with the appearance of it, breaks out in verse : —

"With that of the boke lozende were the claspes,
The margin was illumined al with golden railes,
And bice empictured with grass-oppes and waspes,

With butterflies, and fresh pecocke tailes,

Englored with flowres, and slymy snayles.
Envyved pictures well touched and quickely,
It would have made a man hole that had be right sickly,
To behold how it was garnished and bound,
Encoverde over with golde and tissue fine,
The claspes and bullions were worth a M pounde,

With balassis and carbuncles the border did shine,

With aurum mosaicism every other line," etc.

Many old English writers mention the style of binding in vogue in their time.
Robert Copeland, in his poetical prefix to Chaucer's " Assembly of Fools," 1 530, writes : —

" Chaucer is dede, the which this pamphlete wrate,
So ben his heyres in all such besynesse,
And gone is also the famous clerke Lydgate,
And so is younge Hawes, God theye soules addresse,
Many were the volumes that they made more or lesse,
Theyr bokes ye lay up tyll that the lether moules." '

Of the early use of leather, Montfaucon mentions several specimens of calf-skin glued to
boards.

To return to royal bindings, it appears from the extracts before quoted that there

1 Under the head of Leather Bindings (pp. 123-7) w^' ^°e found an account of several beautifully
ornamented volumes from the library of Henry VIII. and the collections of his son Edward VI., and
his daughter Mary.

3 Edited by F. Madden, Esq., F.S.A., 8vo., Pickering.

* Skelton, 46.

i Quoted from Dibdin's " Typ. Antiq.," vol. ii., p. 279.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS.

was then such a servant of the court as the King's Bookbinder ; they go far, too, to
clear the eighth Harry from the charge of knowing nothing of and caring less for fine
books. That his predecessor Henry VII. collected a magnificent library, the various

" BOOK OF HOURS " OF MARY I. OF ENGLAND, BOUND IN VELVET WITH SILVER MOUNTINGS.

(Photographed from the original at Stonyhurst College.)

splendid specimens still extant in the British Museum afford full evidence ; but there
can be no doubt that this library was considerably augmented by Henry VIII., under
the skilful direction of the great antiquary Leland, whom the king had appointed his

212 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

librarian. Leland, in his visits to the monasteries about the time of the Dissolution,
selected many rare manuscripts and fine books for the king's library. Hentzner,
a German traveller, who, describing the royal library of the kings of England, originally
in the old palace at Westminster, but now in the British Museum, which he saw at
Whitehall in 1 598, says that it was well furnished with Greek, Latin, Italian, and French
books, all bound in velvet, of different colours, yet chiefly red, with clasps of gold and
silver ; and that the covers of some of them were adorned with pearls and precious
stones.1

Perhaps the earliest example of an embroidered binding with the arms of an
English sovereign is that upon a manuscript " Description de toute la Terre Saincte,"
now in the British Museum. This book is dedicated to Henry VIII. The cover is of
crimson velvet, and upon it is embroidered a bold heraldic design, consisting of the royal
shield, crowned and surrounded by the garter ; on either side is the initial H, and at
the corners Tudor roses, placed just as the metal corner-studs used to be placed.

Queen Catherine Parr had a taste for embroidered bindings. One bearing her
arms magnificently embroidered upon the purple velvet cover may be seen upon
"II Petrarcha," etc., in the old royal collection. The date is probably about 1544.

(1547 — 1553, EDWARD VI.) The bindings made for the young king were mostly
of leather gold-tooled, and some account of them will be found on p. 225.

(1553 — 1558, MARY I.) During the short reign of Mary many beautiful book-
bindings were devised, the queen herself leading the fashion by having her own " Book
of Hours " beautifully bound in rich purple velvet, adorned with clasps and ornaments
in silver. At the four corners are the letters M. A. I. A., and in the centre the letter R.
crowned reading Maria. On either side of the crowned R. are the Tudor badges, the
rose and pomegranate. This binding is now at Stoneyhurst College.

In the British Museum, also, among the royal manuscripts, is an Old Testament,
Psalter, Hymns, etc. (2 B. vii.), formerly belonging to Queen Mary, bound in a truly
regal style. It has thick boards covered with crimson velvet, richly embroidered with
large flowers in coloured silks and gold twist. It is further embellished with gilt brass
bosses and clasps ; on the latter are engraved the arms of England. Mary, like her
brother, seems to have had a preference for leather bindings.

(1558 — 1603, Elizabeth.) Several other specimens of velvet binding are still
extant in our public libraries. This style continued in use till at least the end of the
sixteenth century. Queen Elizabeth, on her visit to Cambridge in 1578, was presented
by the vice-chancellor with " a Newe Testament in Greek, of Robertus Stephanus, his
first printing in folio, bound in redd velvett, and lymed with gould ; the armes of
England sett upon eche side of the booke, vearey faire." 2

A custom of perfuming books at this period is shown in the instructions relative to
presents to the queen, sent by the Lord Treasurer Burghley to the vice-chancellor of
the University on this occasion. He says, " Present a book well bound " ; and charges

1 Warton's " Eng. Poetry," iii. 272.

2 Hartshorne's " Book Rarities of Cambridge," 5.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS.

them " to regard that the book had no savour of spike, which commonly bookbinders
did seek to add, to make their books savour well." '

Everything tends to show that Elizabeth was profuse in the embellishment of the
bindings of her books ; and this doubtless influenced many people to present to her works
in a costume she would be likely to approve. Among the New Year's gifts, sent her in
the twenty-seventh year of her reign (1585), was a Bible from Absolon, master of the

BINDING OF A BIBLE GIVEN TO QUEEN ELIZABETH, I584.

(Copied from the original at the Bodleian Library.)

Savoy, bound in cloth of gold, garnished with silver and gilt, with two plates of the royal
arms.2 On New Year's Day 1584 a folio Bible, printed by C. Barker, was presented to
the queen ; it is now in the Bodleian Library ; the binding is of ruby velvet, embroidered
with gold and silver thread in a pattern of roses. (Douce Bibl. Eng., 1583, b. v.)

There is extant also a list of " gifts given to her Majestie at Newyeres-tide, 1582 " :
1 Nichols's " Progresses of Elizabeth," ii. 1. 2 Ibid., preface, xxvi.

214 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

and amongst other presents appears "a little book of gold enamuled, garnished, and
furnished with smale diamondes and rubyes, both claspes and all hanging at a chayne
of gold, viz., vi. pieces of gold enamuled, two of them garnished with ragged staves
of smale specks of diamondes, and iv. of them in eche, 1 1 smale diamondes, and 2 smale
sparcks of rubyes, xvi. lesser pieces of golde, in every of them a smale diamonde, also
xxiv. pieces of gold in every of them, iv. perles with a ring of golde to hang it by, all
given by Therle of Leycester, Master of the horse." ■

Another royal favourite, Sir John Packington, of Westwood in Worcestershire, the
handsome, jovial, generous, but eccentric gentleman, who met Queen Elizabeth at
Worcester, during one of her progresses, and for his brave looks was made a Knight
of the Bath, gave his royal mistress " a boke of gold enamuled, garnished with viii.
amarestes," as may be found duly set forth in Nichols's " Progresses."

In 1573 an inventory was taken of the queen's jewels and plate, among which were
included several precious bindings, thus : " Oone Gospell booke, covered with tissue
and garnished on th' ouside with the crucifix and the Queenss badges of gilver gilt, poiz
with wodde, leaves, and all cxij oz."

" Oone booke of the Gospelles plated with silver, and guilt upon bourdes with the
image of the crucifix thereupon, and iiij evangelists in iiij places, with two greate
claspes of silver and guilt, poiz lii oz. gr., and weing with the bourdes, leaves, and
binding, and the covering of red vellat cxxjx). oz." '

Of the labour and expense incurred in embroidering book-covers we have an
illustration in the copy of Archbishop Parker's " De Antiquitate Ecclesia? Britannicas,"
in the royal collection in the British Museum, presented to Queen Elizabeth by
the archbishop. It is a small folio printed in 1572. The cover is of green velvet,
and the front, or first side, is embroidered with coloured silks and silver thread, in deep
relief, as shown on a reduced scale in the annexed cut. It is conjectured that the
learned churchman intended the design as a reference to his name, — Parker. It repre-
sents a park inclosed by railings, having in the centre a large rose tree, and deer
in various positions. The reverse of the binding has a similar design, but the interior
occupied by five deer, one in the centre reposing, the other four, like those already
described ; two snakes and various small shrubs are disposed in the space between. The
back is divided into five compartments, by embroidered lines, having a red rose with
buds and branches between each, except the second from the head, on which, at some
subsequent period, has been placed the title on a piece of leather, thus : —

PARKERUS

DE ANT.
EC. BRIT.
LOND. 1572.
The bottom compartment bears on a small piece of leather, fixed on the embroidery, —

ejb £§3

EL. R.

1 Arc/ucoiogia, xiii. 221.

EXGUS/l ROYAL BINDINGS.

215

The book has been rebound in green morocco,. but the sides and back as above
described are placed over the morocco in a very creditable manner. It is now exhibited
in a glass case in the King's Library. In all probability this and the binding of
Barker's Bible, 1583, are the work of the same skilled embroiderer.

Another book of Elizabeth's, also in the British Museum, merits notice on account
of its binding. It is the " Historia Ecclesia," printed at Louvain in 1 569, bound
in green velvet, with the royal arms embroidered with coloured silks, and silver and
gold thread on crimson silk in the centre of each side. The remaining spaces arc
filled up with roses, foliage, etc., formed
of the same materials, and some of the
flowers composed of small pearls, many
of which are lost. The back is similar to
the last described, and bears the queen's
initials. In the same collection is another
book-cover, beautifully embroidered in
silver thread on black velvet. The book is
" Orationis Dominica; Explicatio " (Geneva,
1583). This cover also is said to have been
worked by Queen Elizabeth.

At the special exhibition of book-
bindings held at the Burlington Fine Art
Club in 1 89 1 many beautiful embroidered
bindings were exhibited. Among others
a copy of " Udall's Sermons " (London,
1 596), covered in crimson velvet, upon
which the royal shield, initials, and rose
badge are effectively worked. The shield
is built up of blue and crimson satin, on
which the fleur-de-lis and lions are em-
broidered, the scrolls and flowers being
worked with silver thread. This book was
lent by S. Sanders, Esq.

Velvet was not the only covering for
books ; silk and damask were also in general
use for that purpose in the sixteenth cen-
tury. Alexander Barclay, in his "Ship of Fooles" (1500 — 1552), speaking of the
company, has the following lines, relative to the student or bookworm, whom he rather
inconsistently places as the first fool in the vessel : —

" But yet I have them (my books) in great reverence,
And honour, saving them from filth and ordure ;
By often brusshing, and much diligence,
Full goodly bounde in pleasaunt coverture

EMBROIDERED BINDING ON A BOOK GIVEN BY ARCH-
BISHOP PARKER TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.

(From the original in the British Museum, much
reduced.)

' UDALL's SERMONS" (LONDON, I596). ARMS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH EMBROIDERED ON THE BINDING.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS. 217

Of damas, sattin, or els of velvet pure :

I keep them sure, fearing least they should be lost,

For in them is the cunning wherein I me boast." '

.The various extracts already given prove that velvet, silk, or damask were the
principal coverings made use of for the best bindings up to the end of the fifteenth
century, and that they continued to be partially used for books belonging to the royal
library a century after. In addition it has been shown that books were lavishly
ornamented with all that ingenuity could devise. Nor did the highest and the fairest
consider it beneath their dignity to exert their skill in this service, by adding to
the covers embroidered ornament. This is called Tambour binding ; and a Psalter,
bound with a large flower worked in tambour upon one side of it, is in the British
Museum, which flower is considered by Dr. Dibdin 2 to be the work of Queen Mary.
Be this conjecture true or not, it is certain that ladies at this period were more
conversant with this style of book ornament than a mere inspection would imply.
Lady Jane Grey, in an exhortation written to her sister the night before her
execution, thus expresses herself: " I have here sent you, my dear sister Katherine,
a book, which although it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, or the curious
embroidery of the artfullest needles, yet inwardly it is more worth than all the precious
mines which the vast world can boast of," 3 etc. A copy of this letter in the British
Museum 4 varies a little from the above : " I haue sent yo good sust1' K. a boke wh
although it be not outwardly rimid with gold," etc.

From this, and the great love of books which Lady Jane Grey is known to have
had, it may be pronounced all but certain that she was accustomed to employ some
of the leisure she possessed in the embroidery of the covers of them.

Mary Queen of Scots, when in prison, told a friend of Sir William Cecil that " all
day she wrought with her nydell, and that diversity of the colours made the work seem
less tedious, and she continued so long at it till very payne made her to give over."
Book-covers are said to have been among the favourite works of her needle.

Queen Elizabeth employed her needle in adorning the covers of books, and when
only eleven years old embroidered a bookbinding for her step-mother, Queen Catherine
Parr, c. 1544. This binding is now in the Bodleian (MS. Cherry 36). On a ground-
work of light blue silk, knitted, is a braided cross and initials K. P., in silver thread,
and at each corner a heartsease. For so young a lady this is a most creditable
performance. When in prime of life Elizabeth was still a bookbinder, if we may
believe the evidence of a little book, also in the Bodleian, at Oxford (e. Musaso 242).
It is a much-worn copy of St. Paul's Epistles, in English ; and the binding is said
to have been worked by Elizabeth while imprisoned at Woodstock, during the reign
of her sister, Queen Mary. The cover is of black silk velvet, curiously embroidered
with mottoes and devices in silver. Round the extreme border of the upper side
•is worked

"CCELUM PATRIAE. SCOPUS VIT.E XPVS. CHRISTO VIVE."
1 Warton, iii. 77. 2 " Bib. Dec," i. 99. a Nicolas's "Lady Jane Grey," 41. 4 Harl. MSS. 2370.

3i8 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

In the centre a heart, and about it,

"ELEVA COR SURSUM IBI UBI E. C." '
On the other side

"BEATUS QUI DIVITIAS SCRIPTURE LEGENS VERBA VERTIT IN OPERA."

And in the centre, round a star,

"VICIT OMNIA PERTINAX VIRTUS E. C."2

For a volume of prayers bound in crimson velvet, among the royal manuscripts in
the British Museum, is claimed the same distinction as for the preceding work. On each
side is embroidered with silver thread a monogram, apparently composed of the letters
R. H. K. N. A. and E. in high relief, with the letter H. above and below, and a
rose at the four corners.3

From what has been previously stated, it is evident that Elizabeth was a great
lover of books, and a munificent patron of all concerned in their embellishment. She
is said to have carried upon her person a manual of prayers bound in gold, and attached
by a gold chain to her girdle. The sides of the binding measure 2\ X I finches. The
golden figures of this jewel-binding are in high relief, coloured in enamel in the style
of Cellini.4 It was exhibited at the Tudor Exhibition.

The following, extracted from the " Catalogue of the Special Loan Exhibition,
South Kensington, 1862," fully describes this remarkable golden binding : —

" No. 7760. Queen Elizabeth's prayer book, bound in gold and enamelled, said to
be the workmanship of George Heriot.

" This interesting specimen of an historical goldsmith's skill contains a collection
of prayers and meditations composed expressly for the queen's use by the Lady
Elizabeth Tirwit, her governess ; she was a Falconbridge, and her arms, a lion with
two tails, are printed inside. The prayers were printed in 1574 by A. Barker, whose
device is seen on several leaves, a man stripping the bark from a tree, and the
couplet, —

' A Barker if you will,
In name but not in skill.'

This book was worn by the queen suspended by a chain from her girdle through
the two rings which are at the top.

" The cover is of gold ornamented with coloured enamel figures in full relief. In
front is represented the raising of the serpent in the wilderness, an emaciated figure in

1 Est Christus.

2 ElizabethcB Captivse, or Elizabethce Cafitiva, Nichols's " Progresses," 3 vols., 4to, 1823, preface.

3 Ge7itlemarfs Magazine, new series, i. 63.

4 Engravings of this binding may be seen in the Gentleman's Magazine, and in Home's
"Introduction to Bibliography," both poorly executed. For the photographs from which the illus-
trations here given are taken I am indebted to the kindness of C. J. Wertheimer, Esq., to whom I
desire to express my thanks. — Ed. *

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS.

219

the foreground, and three others, one in the attitude of prayer ; on a border round it is
written, —

' ►!< MAfcE • THE • A ■ FYRIE ■ SERPENT ■ AN ■ SETITVP ' FORA"
SYGNE • THATAS • MANY • ASARE ■ BYTTE • MAYEL0KE ■
VPONIT.- AN ' LYVE.'

On the back is represented the judgment of Solomon, —

' ►!< THEN • THE ■ KYNG ■ ANSVERED ■ AN ■ SAYD ■ GYVE ■ HER ■
THE ' LYVYNG ■ CHILD ■ AN ■ SLAYETNOT ■ FOR " SHEIS ■
THE ' MOTHER ■ THEROF. 3 K, 3 c'

The edges and back of the cover are decorated with black enamels.

i'i '%

5tf

QUEEN ELIZABETHS GOLDEN MANUAL OF PRAYERS. THE BINDING IS OF GOLD ENAMELLED, AND IS SAID TO
BE THE WORK OF GEORGE HERIOT.

{Photographed from the original in the possession of C. J. IVcrtheimer, Esq.)

"George Heriot was the favourite goldsmith and banker of James I. of England, and
the founder of that noble institution ' George Heriot's Hospital,' at Edinburgh. (From
the Duke of Sussex's collection.) Lent by George Field, Esqr."

On Tuesday, June 13th, 1893, this book was sold by auction, with the rest of the
Field collection, by Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods. The competition for the
treasure was very brisk, the first bid being 500 guineas, and the final one 1,220 guineas,
at which price it fell to Charles J. Wertheimer, Esq.1

In the museum of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha was a cover in enamelled gold, upon a
" Book of Hours," measuring about 3 to 3! inches square ; upon each of the panels a
sacred subject is represented, in gold chased in relief; figures of saints occupy the angles ;

1 For particulars of this sale I desire to tha*k Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Woods. — Ed.

220 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

the whole is framed in borders, which, as well as the arches surmounting the chief de-
signs, are composed of diamonds and rubies. Might this be one of the book-covers which
Cellini made by order of Paul III., and offered by that pontiff as a present to Charles V. ? 1

The golden cover of a small missal may be seen at South Kensington Museum ;
like those already noticed, it is wrought in relief and enriched with brilliant enamel. The
subjects on the sides are the Creation of Eve, and, apparently, the Fountain of Youth ;
the edges are ornamented with translucent cliampleve enamel. If this be not the work
of Cellini, it is in his style. The volume is said to have belonged to Henrietta Maria,
queen of Charles I. It is of Italian workmanship of the sixteenth century, and was
purchased for £700. It measures 3f by 3J inches (736-64).

(1603 — 1625, JAMES I.) Elizabeth's successor, the first James, also appears to have
been partial to a velvet exterior. Specimens may be cited, among others, the " Panciroli
Not. Dignit." (Lugduni, 1608) in light blue velvet, richly gilt, and having worked gilt
edges on a red ground, partly left blank as ornament. But one of the most splendid
specimens of an embroidered binding is to be found in the British Museum, in the " Acta
Synodi Nationalis Dordrechti Habitas," printed at the same place in 1620, also once
the property of James I. It is a folio in crimson velvet, the arms of England being
embroidered on both sides with gold thread, yellow silk forming the groundwork ; but
this is entirely hidden by the gold, which is embroidered considerably in relief. The
initial I surmounted by a crown is worked above, and J^ similarly below, as are the
rose and thistle in opposite corners. The bands on the back are formed with the like
material, and the rose and thistle alternately between each. It is lettered on leather,
the head-bands and gilt edges neatly executed, and the boards tied together in front
with scarlet riband. The supporters and mantling are solidly worked in brick-stitch,
of metal gold, the raised parts are of gold cord, some of the leaves are worked in satin-
stitch, the initials are in purl, and the design is outlined in gold cord. Altogether the
workmanship and material are of the first quality, and constitute it a regal book in every
particular. The binding is most probably Dutch. Henry, Prince of Wales, also had
some exceedingly fine embroidered bindings.

A curious binding in a degenerate style, but noteworthy as a typical example
of Jacobean art, is the cover of King James's copy of " A Meditation upon the Lord's
Prayer, written by the King's Majestie" (London, 1619). The cover is of purple velvet,
adorned with clasps, centre and corner-pieces of engraved silver. In the centre are
the royal arms, at the corners the royal badges crowned, the harp, fleur-de-lis, thistle,
cross, a lion holding a sword and sceptre, a rose, and a lion on a cap of maintenance.
Upon the clasps is the Tudor badge, the portcullis, and the initials I. R. This book
forms part of the old royal library at the British Museum.

We now proceed to the consideration of the art in the seventeenth century, and are

compelled at the commencement to state that the manner of execution and style of

finish then began to alter for the worse. The old folios of this period possess none of

the compactness and beauty observed in the bindings of the previous century. How far

1 Labarte, "Arts of the Middle Ages," p. 257.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS.

this may be attributed to the unsettled state of the country during the civil wars of
Charles I., the stern morality of the Puritans, and the reckless profligacy of the second
Charles's reign, cannot for certainty be determined. That these circumstances had much
influence cannot be doubted ; for bookbinders, like other artists where the patronage
of the wealthy is removed, have not much to stimulate them to greater exertion than
the necessity of procuring the means of existence may demand. With some exceptions
this degenerate state of art continued throughout the whole of the century. The
ponderous volumes' of old Nonconformist
divines present little or no variety,
being principally covered with a uniform
brown calf without ornamental exterior.
Several bindings, however, of this period
are thickly studded with gilt ornament
on the back. Oaken boards had en-
tirely disappeared, and a thick but flimsy
paste board substituted, the bands, which
were of hempen cord, being laced in
holes pierced through the boards. A
gilt ornament is sometimes seen on the
sides ; it is of a peculiar character, gene-
rally a diamond-shaped or elliptical
stamp in the centre, ornamented with
arabesques, and sometimes quarters of
the same stamp were added in each
corner. These stampings are badly
executed, being often dull impressions
of an ornament, displaying no taste, and
having none of the sharpness of finish
necessary to give a good effect. Men
of good family often had their arms or
crest stamped in gold upon their book-
covers ; these heraldic stamps are among
the best ornaments of the period.

Binders continued to beat their books, as in the previous century, in order to
produce as much solidity as possible. If the finishing of ordinary bindings was
somewhat slovenly, the justice of attention to the sewing and backing must, however
be given to the craftsmen of this century, as may be seen in some of the volumes
in St. Paul's Cathedral Library, London, which, when preserved from damp, are as
firm in this particular as the day they were executed.

But, in speaking generally, we must not detract from the merits of a few more
talented artists of this degenerated period of our history ; their work confirms the opinion
before expressed, that where patrons are found workmen are not wanting equal to the

BINDING OF "A MEDITATION UPON THE LORDS PRAYER
(LONDON, l6l9) MADE FOR KING JAMES I.

(Photographed from the original at the British Museum.}

222 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

task of executing binding in a superior manner. It is evident that in a few instances a
considerable degree of splendour was bestowed and vast wealth expended on the exterior
of the books by some of the lovers of literature. One of these, Bishop Cosin, not only
lavished great treasure on, but perfectly understood the various manipulations required
in the binding of a book. On October 18th, 1670, he expressly enjoins that "the
bookes should be all nibbed once a fortnight before the fire to prevent moulding." In
another letter, in the year 1671, to his secretary, Stapylton, he says : " You spend a greate
deale of time and many letters about Hugh Hutchinson, and the amies he is to set upo?i
my bookes. Where the backs are all gilded over, there must bee of necessity a piece of
crimson leather set on to receive the stamp, and upon all paper and parchment bookes
besides. The like course must be taken with such bookes as are rude and greasy, and
not apt to receive the stamp. The impression will be taken the better if Hutchinson
shaves the leather thinner." With such knowledge of the practice of bookbinding, we
cannot be surprised at the bishop's love of luxury in the coverings of the choicest works,
which the following document attests : —

To the Right Rev. Father in God, John Ld. Bp. of Durham.

For one booke of Acts bd. in white lether 026

For binding the Bible and Comon Prayer and double gilding and

other trouble in fitting them .300

Pd. for ruleing the Comon Prayer . . . . . .080

The Totall 3 10 6

This, taking into consideration the value of money at the time, appears to have
been the height of luxury and extravagance, but is nothing when compared with the
other ornament lavished on the above Bible and Prayer : —

" Receivd the 31 of January, 1662, of the Right Reverend Father in God, John,
Lord Bishop of Durham, by the hands of Myles Stapylton, the summe of one hundred
pounds, being in part of payment for the plate and workmanship of the covers of a Bible
and Comon Praier Booke. I say received by me, M. S. Houser, Goldsmith, 100/."

This munificent patron of the art does not appear to have confined his endeavours
to the embellishment of his own library and the books of the church over which he
presided, but to have influenced by his example the patronage of others. In a letter
bearing the date of December 8th, 1662, from Mr. Arden to the bishop's secretary,
Myles Stapylton, is this passage : " My Lord desires you to bespeake black leather
cases, lined with green, for the silver and gilt bookes, for the countess of Clarendon to
carrie and keepe them in." 1 With support such as this, though art had degenerated, a
degree of splendour was maintained by a few, who still kept up the remembrance of
the talent of previous workmen, with many of their valuable receipts and directions ; all
which tended to the production of an improved taste in the eighteenth, and ultimately
to a revival in the nineteenth century. To the consideration of this important result,
we shall, in the fifteenth chapter, devote our attention.

1 Dibdin's " Bib. Dec," ii. 503.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS. 223

ENGLISH GOLD-TOOLING.

(1509 — 1547, HENRY VIII.) Gold-tooling appears to have been introduced into
this country in the reign of Henry VIII. by Thomas Berthelet, alias Bartlet ; no
earlier example of English gold-tooling than his work has yet been found.

Berthelet is supposed to have been by birth a Frenchman, but he certainly spent
the greater part of his life in England, and died in London on January 26th, 1556. He
had a shop in Fleet Street at the sign of "Lucretia Romana." In 1529 he succeeded
Richard Pynson in the office of printer and binder to the king. He was the first
stationer who received that privilege by royal patent. On February 15th, 1530,
Henry VIII. granted him an annuity of £4 for life. On September 1st, 1549, he
received from Clarenceux King of Arms a grant of armorial bearings, viz., Azure, on
a chevron flory, counter flory, between two doves argent, as many trefoils vert.

Beyond the facts above recorded little is known about Berthelet and his work ; but
from a manuscript in the British Museum,1 an account for the years 1 541 — 1543, of
books, etc., supplied by him to King Henry VIII., it appears that he bound the king's
book in covers " gorgiously gilted " and " bound after the facion of Venice," or
" gorgiously gilted on the leather," with " arabaske drawing in golde on the transfile."
The black velvet binding of a book, " written on vellum by Maister Turner, cost is. 4a7.
Two Primmers " covered with purple velvet and written abowte with gold " cost 3.5-.
each. A book bound in " crymosyn satyne " was charged 3^. 6d. For a book
gorgiously bounde in white and gilte on the leather " the binder received 4s. The bill
amounted to the enormous sum of £1 17 os. 6\d., representing about .£1,200 at the present
value of money. Many of the items in the bill, however, relate to Acts of Parliament,
which were then promulgated by proclamation ; these proclamations were printed by
Berthelet. In the Record Commissioner's edition of the " Statutes of the Realm "
Berthelet's name as printer occurs frequently between 1509 and 1546.2

In the royal collection at the British Museum there are one or two books still in
their original bindings, tooled in a mixed French and Italian style, which seems to be
peculiar to Berthelet. One is upon Elyot's " Image of Governance," printed by him
in 1 541 ; the boards are covered with white leather, tooled in gold, and on each side
are stamped the royal motto, Dieu et mon droit, and the king's initials ; on the edges
of the leaves are the words Rex, in ceternum vive, painted in gold. The other is a
manuscript bound for Edward VI. Another binding, somewhat similar but of inferior
design, appears upon a volume presented to Henry VIII., in 1544 — 1545, by Antonius
de Musica of Antwerp.

In the Bodleian there are a number of volumes with gold-tooling and the arms of
Henry VIII., with the supporters discarded in 1529. These books appear to have been
given to the Bodleian by James I., and they undoubtedly came from the royal library ;

1 Printed in the Journal of the British Archtzological Association, 1853, vol. viii.
a "Statutes of the Realm," Appendix, and chap. v. § 2.

224 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

several others bearing the royal arms have a geometrical design consisting of an oblong
and a diamond interlaced (MS. Bodl. 354), and may have been bound in Berthelet's
house.

BINDING OF ELYOT'S "IMAGE OF GOVERNANCE" (LONDON, I54I), PRINTED EY THOMAS EERTHELET,
AND PROBABLY BOUND BY HIM FOR HENRY VIII. (REDUCED.)

{Photographed from the original in the British Museum?)

In the same library may be seen a remarkable example of early gold-tooled
bookbinding of English make. The binding is probably unique ; it may date from
about 1515, it cannot be later than 1530; it covers a manuscript of Latin epigrams

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS. 225

addressed by Robert Whittington, the famous Oxford grammarian, to Cardinal Wolsey
(MS. Bodl. 523). This binding is of light brown leather, and upon it are stampings m
gold of an unusual size. Each side is divided into three rectangular compartments, and
each compartment is filled by a stamp measuring 6 by 2\ inches. Only two stamps are
used, the one represents St. George slaying the dragon, the other the three Tudor
badges, the rose, portcullis, and pomegranate. The designs are executed in a bold, rough
fashion, and the broad masses of gold give an appearance of great richness to this most
curious specimen of English binding, which forms a link between the old-fashioned
stamping and the new gold-tooling.

Of quite a different character is the magnificent binding of a Latin Bible printed on
vellum by R. Stephen (Paris, 1 540), probably bound for an English sovereign, and now pre-
served in the Bodleian Library. The sides measure 18 by 1 1 inches, and the back is nearly
6 inches across. The cover is of dark green morocco elaborately ornamented in the Franco-
Grolieresque style. In the centre of the sides is the shield of St. George bearing a red
cross, and around the shield broad lines edged with gold form an elaborate pattern ; the
ground is covered with a multitude of gold dots. Upon the first page the arms of
England are emblazoned. The edges of the leaves, in addition to being finely gilt, are
coloured and tooled. (Bib. Lat, 1540, b. 1.)

(1547 — 1 553, EDWARD VI.) When Prince of Wales, Edward's bindings were
distinguished by the initials E. P., the three feathers, coronet, and motto " ICH DlEN," —
as, for example, upon an " Alphabetical List of Counties and Cities," 1 546 (Royal MS.,
15, c. 1), in the British Museum. After his coronation, Edward placed the royal arms
and crown of England upon the sides of some of his books, and sometimes also the initials
E. R., crowned, as upon the fine binding of "Petri Bembi Cardinalis Historiae Venetiae"
(Venice, 1551). A less elaborate but very effective binding done for this young king
may be seen upon the Museum copy of the " Voyages of Josaphat Barbara " (Royal MS.,
17, c. 10). Here a lozenge and an oblong interlaced are placed with an oblong, the
three geometrical figures being drawn in broad black lines edged with gold. In the
centre is a circle containing the royal arms, and in the spaces between the lines delicate
gold tooling of Italian design ; but in all probability these bindings are English work.
Quite different in style are the bindings decorated with scrolls, such as the fine binding
of" El Felicissimo viaie de Don Phelippe" ; but this is of Flemish origin.

Edward VI. and a few of his nobles appear to have had some of their books
bound in France or the Netherlands in this manner. Most of the king's books
are now at the British Museum, where may also be seen examples done for William
Cecil, Lord Burleigh, Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, Robert Dudley, Earl of
Leicester, and for Thomas Wotton. Lord Burleigh's bindings sometimes have stamped
on their cover : " William * Myldred * Cicyll."

The Earl of Arundel's books are distinguished by his badge, a white horse, painted
on a brown ground in a medallion in the centre of the sides. Thomas Wotton some-
times placed his name, sometimes his arms, upon his bindings ; but frequently they
have neither name nor arms to distinguish them ; the ornament, however, is so distinct

IS

226 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

in character that there is little difficulty in recognising a Wotton binding. The Earl
of Leicester, who belongs more properly to Elizabeth's reign, placed his badge, the
bear and ragged staff, differenced with a crescent, upon the sides of his books. On one

BINDING OF "PETRI EEMBI CARDINALIS HISTORIC VENETIJE, PRINTED AT VENICE I55 1, AND PROBABLY BOUND

IN ENGLAND BY THOMAS BERTHELET, IN 1 552, FOR EDWARD VI. (REDUCED.)

{Photographed from the original in the British Museum.)

late example in the library of Gloucester Cathedral the badge is painted by hand, and
inlaid in the centre of the sides, the leather being cut away so as to form four com-
partments, which are covered with velvet, once, apparently, adorned with pearls.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS.

The Franco-Grolieresque style did not become fashionable in this country, and
we know but one or two examples of it in England : there is one in the Bodleian, and
another on a copy of the quarto Bishop's Bible of I 569, bound for Archbishop Parker
at a time when the English-Grolieresque school (1548 — 1 560) was already on the decline.1
Examples of this school are occasionally found with the date 1552 tooled in the centre
of the sides, but even then the signs of degeneration had already appeared.

(1553 — 1558, Mary I.) Thomas Berthelet is supposed to have been Mary's book-
binder, and the cover of an " Epitome Omnium Operum' Divi Aurelii Augustini," printed
at Cologne in 1 549, decorated with the arms and initials of the queen, is exhibited at the
British Museum as probably the work of that artist. It resembles some of the bindings
done for the queen's brother, and like the " Voyages of Barbara," the geometrical pattern
forms the leading feature in the design ; the arms also are surrounded by a flame-circle, but
the tooling, in the Italian manner, is very much finer
than upon King Edward's book. There are at least
three books bound for Queen Mary in the Manuscript
Department at the British Museum and several in the
Printed Book Department, all deserving notice.

(1558 — 1603, Elizabeth.) Elizabeth, we have
already seen, had a liking for beautiful bindings, espe-
cially when the materials were rich stuffs and em-
broidery. In this queen's reign some magnificent
bindings in the Oriental style found their way into
England. They were either imported from Italy or
Lyons, or the work of an Italian or Lyonese book-
binder residing in England. The queen possessed a
French Bible, printed at Lyons by Sebastian Hono-
rati, 1566, bound in this manner in 1567. The book
is now at the British Museum. The binding is
covered with leather with arabesque designs and
other ornaments in sunk panels brightly coloured and
the queen. The cover is 17 inches long and about

gilt upon red, with minute tooling. Henry VIII. is said to have owned
Lyonese binding, which was formerly in the possession of Mr. Heber.

Sir Nicholas Bacon and one or two more English nobles seem to have possessed
bindings of this kind, ornamented with their arms and devices painted in sunk
panels.

There are two examples in the British Museum. One, upon a sixteenth-century
manuscript, relating a grant of land made by the Duke of Urbano, is an exact copy of
Oriental work ; the other is a Venetian binding upon a copy of the " Statutes and
Ordinances of the Republic of Venice," and bears traces of Italian influence.

Upon a copy of Nicolay's "Navigations" (Lyons, 1568) the arms and initials of
1 Mr. B. Quaritch, "A Short History of Bookbinding."

PORTRAIT OF JOHN DAY, PRINTER AND
BOOKBINDER.

gilt ; in the centre is a portrait of
1 1 inches wide. The edges are
similar

228 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Queen Elizabeth are painted upon each cover, the surrounding border being delicately
tooled and the corners adorned with heavy stamps.

Besides these special bindings of foreign character Elizabeth possessed many
gold-tooled leather bindings of undoubted English make. Of this latter kind are the
plain leather covers bearing the falcon badge of the Boleyn family, a cognisance specially
dear to the queen because it was her mother's. (See head-piece, chapter xv., p. 237.)

A striking binding is that of Thomas Marsh's edition of " Matthew of Westminster,"
1570, presented to the queen, whose arms appear in the centre of the sides, surrounded
by a rich border stamped upon white leather. The outer border also has inlays of white
with stampings of military ornaments, and upon a label the initials I. D. P. Similar
ornaments occur on the queen's copy of a book printed by John Day in 1571.

Upon a number of small volumes dated 1 569 in the library of Lichfield Cathedral
we find a simple Tudor rose ensigned by a royal crown tooled upon the centre of the
sides (probably these books belonged to Elizabeth) ; and upon a fragment of a binding
in the Douce Collection, at the Bodleian, the same device is tooled within a lozenge-
shaped border ; this stamp was probably used by Elizabeth and Henry VIII.

Upon a book dated 1594 in the library of Gloucester Cathedral the queen's arms,
within an elliptical border, ensigned by a royal crown and surrounded by a garter, are
tooled in a very effective manner.

The persecution of the Protestants in France caused numerous artisans to take
refuge in England. Among the refugees were several bookbinders. One Georges de la
Motthe, a French refugee, composed, illuminated, and probably bound " A Hymn to
Queen Elizabeth" in 1586. This unique book is now at the Bodleian ; it is bound in
brown leather, inlaid with coloured morocco, and tooled most curiously. In the centre
is a large crystal covering an enamel of some kind, popularly supposed to be com-
posed of humming-birds' feathers. The border contains the motto, "Hie arcana de<z
procul 0 procul este profani" and on the reverse, " Hcec sola evolvet, mortali vulnera
mortis" The outer border contains the arms and initials of Elizabeth with various
royal badges, symbolical letters, and signs.

Archbishop Parker, one of the greatest patrons of literature in this reign, introduced
the Veneto-Lyonese style about 1 570, a style which flourished here for nearly sixty years.
The books from Parker's private library, as well as the copies presented by him to the queen,
are all beautifully ornamented. Some of his bindings are said to bear the arms of Parker
— a cheveron, charged with three stars, between three golden keys — in the centre, sur-
rounded by an elaborate border, stamped corner-pieces, and graceful tooling. The arch-
bishop maintained in Lambeth Palace printers, limners, wood-cutters, and bookbinders.1
(1603 — 1625, James I.) To James I. must be accorded the merit of introducing
morocco as a general cover for the binding of books in the English royal library. Volumes
in velvet bindings belonging to him have been described before, but he also possessed
a large number of superbly bound books resplendent with gold tooling upon leather ;
the sides being usually ornamented with his arms and initials, and thickly studded with
1 Gentlemaiis Magazine, new series, 1.

PONTIFICALE ROMANUM CLEMENTIS VIII. PONT. MAX.

PRINTED AT ROME I 595. BOUND IN ENGLAND AFTER 1 603.

MOROCCO GOLD-TOOLED WITH THE ARMS AND BADGES OF JAMES I.

(Reproduced from the original in the British Museum,.)

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS. 229

heraldic thistles, fleurs-de-lis, etc., in a manner suggestive of some of the best French
work of the same period.

The tooling generally is not so delicate as that of the great French binders ; neither
are the ornaments so accurately disposed as theirs, but the effects are broader. The
Bodleian Library possesses some books bound for this king, but the greater part of his
library is with the old royal collection at the British Museum.

The binding of " Les Vrais Pourtraits et Vies des Hommes Illustres," par
Andre Thevet, large folio (Paris, 1584), is in green morocco, the royal arms in the
centre, surrounded by scroll and ornamental work. The design and execution of this
binding are both beautiful. Tradition ascribes the work to John Gibson, and we have
never seen any French work exactly like it, nor any better. The arms in the centre are
tooled upon inlaid coloured leather. Another binding, the " Caeremoniale Episcoporum,"
folio (Rome, 1600), bears the shield of the royal arms in the centre, and the remaining
space completely studded with the rose, thistle, etc. The like ornament is also found on
another folio, bearing the initials of Charles I.

Other notable bindings belonging to King James are upon : —

1. "Plea between the Advocate and the Antadvocate concerning the
BATH AND BACHELOR KNIGHTS," by Francis Thynne, 1605 (Department of Manu-
scripts, British Museum), is covered in brown calf, having the king's arms in the centre,
heavily gilt stamps at the corners, and a series of fleurs-de-lys.

2. " Laertii Cherubini de Nursia Civis Romani," etc. (Rome, 161 7), in the
British Museum. In the centre are the royal arms, heavy stamps are placed at the
corners, a fine border surrounds the panel, and the intervening space is roughly tooled
with a small ornament resembling a trident. The material is brown morocco.

3. " De Gratia et Preseverantia Sanctorum" (London, 1618), bound in
white vellum adorned with powderings of stars, an effective ornament found upon several
bindings at this period.

4. " Pontificale Roman Ujvi," etc. (Rome, 1595), covered with brown morocco
elaborately tooled. In the centre is the usual stamp of the royal arms, a lace-like border
surrounds the panel, upon which thistles and fleurs-de-lys are arrayed close together in
vertical lines, and between them a smaller ornament representing a marguerite. The
back of the book is tooled all over. This is a thoroughly characteristic piece of work.

From these examples it is evident that James, before his accession to the English
throne, had been a patron of bookbinders. A great lover of literature, like many of
his royal predecessors, he made the covers of his books convey some idea of his
estimation of their contents. A document found by Mr. Thomson, of the Record Office,
Edinburgh, and published by the Bannatyne Club,1 not only gives an account of this
monarch's books, but many notices of the sums paid to and transactions with book-
sellers, printers, and binders. Our subject relates to the latter, and fortunately many
items occur which throw considerable light on the sort of bindings and prices paid in
the northern capital about the year 1580.

1 "The Library of Mary Queen of Scots, and James VI.," 4to.

23o A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

We have seen that there was the " king's bookbinder " in the time of Henry VIII.,
and here we have an appointment of John Gibson, under the privy seal, dated at
Dalkeith, July 29th, 1581, to the like office under James VI. of Scotland :—

" Ane letter maid to Johne Gibsoun bukebinder, makand him Our Soverane Lordis
Buikbinder, and gevand to him the office thairof for all the dayis of his lyfetyme, etc., etc.
For using and exercing quhairof his heines gevis grantis and assignis to the said Johne
yeirlie the sowme of tuentie pundis usuall money of this realme, to be payit to him yierlie."

In the previous year a long account of this John Gibson's, for work done for the
king, presents, among fifty-nine different books, the following items selected according
to sizes to show the variation in price : —

xx s

X s

XX s

vj s viij d
x s
V s
iij s

Johne Gibsonis Buikbinders Precept.

Zanthig [Zanchius] de tribus elohim fol. gylt, pryce
Harmonia Stanhursti fo. in vellene, pryce ....
Dictionarium in latino grjeco et gallico sermone 40 gylt, pryce
Budceus de contemptu rerum fortuitarum 40 in vellene .
Comrnentaria in Suetonium 8° gylt, pryce ....
Thesaurus pauperum 8° In vellene .....

Petronius Arbiter 8° In parchment .....
Orationes clarorum virorum 1 6° gylt, pryce .

„ ,r Summa of this compt is

P. YOWNG. xyij j._ jjj. g_ mj d *

On the back of this account is an order upon the treasurer, subscribed by the king, and
the abbots of Dunfermline and Cambuskenneth, as follows : —

REX.

Thesauraire we greit yow weill IT is our will and we charge yow that ye Incontinent efter the
sycht heirof ansuer our louit Johnne gipsoun buikbindar of the sowme of sevintene pundis iiij s
iiij d within mentionat To be thanekfullie allowit to yow in your comptis keping this our precept
together with the said Johnne his acquittance thairvpoun for your warrand Subscryuit with our
hand At Halyrudehous the first day of October 1580.

JAMES R.

R Dunfermline A Cambuskenneth

Here we have also further Gibson's receipt :—

" I Johnne Gibsoun be the tennor heirof grant me to haue ressauit fra Robert coluill of
cleishe in name of my lord thesaurar the sowme of sevintene punde iiijs iiijd conforme to yis
compt and precept within writtin off ye qlk sowme I hald me weill qtent and payit and discharge
him hereof for euir Be thir p'nte subscyuit with my hand At Edr the xv day of november 1580.
Johnegybsone wt my hand.

" Gylt price," referring to a superior binding in leather, perhaps morocco, as it is
seen that about double the price paid for vellene is charged. Vellum graced the general
class of reading books, and parchment afforded a protection for the least valued. A few
of James's vellum-bound books are ornamented with gold-tooling of an inferior kind.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS. 231

John Webster, in " The Devil's Law Case," a drama first published in 1623, refers

to the practice of applying gold-tooling to vellum binding : —

" There's in my closet a prayer-book that is covered with gilt vellum. Fetch it." l
In the accounts of the High Treasurer for Scotland in the years 1580 — 1582 we

read : —

Maii 1580. Item be the Kingis Majesteis precept to Johnne Gibsoun buikbinder, for
certane buikis furnist to his hienes, conforme to his particular compt, as the samyn with the said
precept and his acquittance schewin upoun compt ben's, xlj lib. vj s.

October 1580. Item be the Kingis Majesteis precept to Johnne Gibsoune buikbindar, ffor
certane buikis maid be him to his hienes, conforme to the particular compt gevin in therupoun,
as the samin with the said precept and his acquittance schewin upoun compt beiris, xx li.

Januare 1582. Item be his Majesties precept to Johnne Gibsoun buikbindare, for sindrie
volumes bund to his hienes, as the precept with his acquittance producit upoun compt beris, v lj.
xvj s. viij d.

Marche 1582. Item for binding of the New Testament to his Majestie be Johne Gibsoun
buikbindare, xiiij s.2

Whether Gibson came to England with James cannot be determined, or if any of
the specimens we have before described are to be attributed to him must alike remain
in doubt. The sums paid him were for such work as was at the time adopted for the
general bindings of the possessors of libraries at that period.

Andrew Hart was another Scotch bookbinder in the time of James VI. of whom
little is known except his having bound some books for that monarch. In the accounts
above referred to is the following entry : —

Aprile 1602. Item payit to Andro Hart Buikbinder, for certane buikis quhilkis wer gevin to
Mr. Adam Newtoun for the Prince his use as the said Mr. Adamis ressait thairof prodaut testifies
xxj. li. ix. s.

James, on coming to the English throne, continued and most probably extended
his patronage of the art. He appointed Robert Barker and John Norton his book-
binders ; but it is doubtful if they themselves ever bound a book for the king. They most
probably employed others to do the work. The specimens described show James to
have been fond of ornament ; and of his regard for literature an instance may be cited
from a speech delivered on the occasion of his visit to the Bodleian Library at Oxford,
wherein he stated, " if he were not a king, he would desire no other prison, than to
be chained together with so many good authors."3

The various styles previously described continued to be practised to the end of the
seventeenth century by a few bookbinders ; but the general character of bookbinding

1 Webster's Dramatic Works, vol. ii., p. 128, Ed. Pickering, 1830.

2 " The Library of Mary Queen of Scots, and James VI." 4to.

3 Hearne's " Rel. Bodl." 1703. Introduction.

232 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

for some time before and up to the close of that period had much depreciated, as there
will be occasion to show.

The binders of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were celebrated for their
skill. In the year 1 598 we find Dr. James, the first appointed librarian of the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, had complained to his patron of the London binding, and Sir
Thomas Bodley replying, " Would to God you had signified wherein the abuses of our
London binding did consist." ' And again, wishing to know for what price " Dominick
and Mills" two Oxford binders, would execute an ordinary volume in folio." 2 He
afterwards appears to have employed these or other artists, for in another letter to the
librarian he says, " I pray you put as many to binding of the books, as you shall think
convenient, of which I would have some dozen of the better paper, to be trimmed
with guilding and strings " ; 3 and sends, at another time, " money for their bindings,
chainings, placings," i etc.

The materials adopted by Sir Thomas Bodley were principally leather and vellum
and occasionally velvet, as in the prince's (afterwards Charles I.) books,5 which he
had presented to the library. The statutes which he left, and now in the library, show
that where it could be conveniently done, he preferred leather to vellum as a cover for
his books : —

" Statuimus etiam, ut libri in posterum de novo ligandi aut compingendi, sint omnes
si commode fieri possit coriacei non membranacei." 6

The styles and colours he adopted were various. He directs that care be taken in
the appointment of " the scholars to transmit the books from the packages, that none be
embezzled by reason of ihefaie binding of some of the volumes." 7 And again, " I pray
you continue your purpose for colouring such books as you fancy most." 8 Others he
orders to be guilded, and gives directions in almost every letter, relative to some
department of binding and ornamenting the books.

The establishment of the Bodleian gave a stimulus to everything connected with
books in the University, but Oxford binding, though in some repute, still must have
been limited in extent, as at that time the college libraries there were neither large
nor numerous. According to Sir Thomas Bodley, Cambridge was even worse off, he
remarks, after his visit to that University, " The libraries are meanly stored, and Trinity
College worst of all." 9

The bindings of Cambridge, however, enjoyed an equal reputation with those of
Oxford. A decree of the University (A.D. 1523) provided "that every bookbinder,
bookseller, and stationer should stand severally bound to the university in the sum
of £40, and that the)^ should from time to time provide sufficient store of all manner
of books fit and requisite for the furnishing of students ; and that all the books should

1 Hearne's " Rel. Bodl.,'' 159. 5 Hearne's " Rel. Bodl.," 217.

2 Ibid., 185. ° " Appendix Statutorum," 24.

3 Ibid., 342. » Hearne's " Rel. Bodl.," 274.

4 Ibid., 363. 8 ibid., 218.

9 Hearne's " Rel. Bodl.," 195.

ENGLISH ROYAL BINDINGS. 233

be well botcnd, and be sold at all times upon reasonable prices."1 The binders in
Cambridge at this period exercised also the trades of booksellers, printers, and
stationers." 2 Both Universities maintained their reputation for good bindings during
the troubled times of the middle of the seventeenth century, and have done so up to
the present day.

Authors and learned men in the Tudor and Stuart times were generally careful
about the binding of their books. Myles Coverdale in a letter to Thomas Lord
Cromwell, relative to his translation of the Bible, says, A.D. 1538: "As concernyng y°
New Testament in English, ye copy whereof yo1' good lordshippe receaved lately a
boke by y1' servant Sebastian ye coke. I besech y1' L. to consydre yc grenesse thereof
which (for lack of tyme,) can not as yet be so apte to be bounde as it should be." 3
Sir Thomas Bodley displays a perfect knowledge of everything connected with the
subject. In his various letters to Dr. James he is continually giving directions relative
to the bindings of the books in vellum and leather, ordering them to be rubbed by the
keeper with clean cloths, as a precaution against mould and worms ; and making pro-
vision for a proper supply of bars, locks, hasps, grates, clasps, wire, chains, and gimnios
of iron, " belonging to the fastening and rivetting of the books." 4 Bodley's great con-
temporary, Sir Robert Cotton, was also equally well versed in the details of binding.
Sir Matthew Hale, in bequeathing a collection of manuscripts to the library of Lincoln's
Inn, says, " They are fit to be bound in leather, and chained, and kept in archives." At
Eton College, during the Provostship of Sir Henry Savile (1 596-1622), both printers
and bookbinders were employed ; some excellent work done by the Eton binders still
remains to attest their skill.

Henry, Prince of Wales, inherited from his father a love of learning and of good
books well bound. When the library of Lord Lumley was purchased by the prince,
he appears to have had many of the books rebound in calf, with his arms in the centre
of the covers, and crowned roses, fleur-de-lis, Prince of Wales's feathers, or heraldic lions
in the corners. Lord Arundel, Lady Lumley's father, had obtained a great portion of
Archbishop Cranmer's library, and upon the death of Lord Lumley, Prince Henry's
tutor, these passed into the prince's possession. Prince Henry's books are now nearly
all in the British Museum.

(1625 — 1649, Charles I.) Charles I. was not a great patron of bookbinders. His
arms appear upon the covers of a few books ; for example, upon Williams' " The Right
Way to the Best Religion " (London, 1636), in the British Museum, as also upon
"Hippocratis et Galeni Opera " (Paris, 1639). Upon the latter the crowned monogram
C. M., for Charles and Maria, is several times repeated. When Prince of Wales, Charles
placed his arms and initials C. P. on the sides of his books.

It was in this reign that Nicholas Ferrar, a man of cultured tastes and deep piety,
retired to a pleasant mansion-house at Little Gidding, in Huntingdonshire, where he
dwelt for many years, presiding over a community of relatives, chiefly women, who

1 Harl. MSS. 7050. 3 Smith's " Facsimiles," plate 17.

2 Gentleman's Magazine, 17S1, 409. 4 Hearne's " Rel. Bodl.''

234 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

observed hours of prayer, and occupied themselves with various useful labours, among
others that of bookbinding. Nicholas Ferrar was born in 1592, was educated at
Cambridge, and after spending some years abroad returned to England in 1619. Till
1624 he managed the affairs of the Virginia Company, and soon afterwards bought
the estate of Little Gidding. There is no need to relate here how the family composed
" Harmonies " of the Biblical books ; but this chapter would be incomplete without a
short account of the Little Gidding bookbinding. "An ingenious bookbinder" was
employed to teach the whole family the art of bookbinding, gilding, and lettering.
This bookbinder was a lady, " a bookbinder's daughter of Cambridge," very expert in
the art of gilding ; and the king, who had a book bound by her, said he had never seen
the like workmanship.1 The ladies, too, are believed to have applied their knowledge
of embroidery to the same useful art. But contrary to the usual impression no
embroidered bindings worked at Gidding are known. The British Museum copy of the
Gidding " A History of the Israelites," dated 1639, perhaps one of the books specially
made for Charles I., is bound in dark green leather elaborately tooled in gold ; on the
back are the initials C. R. It was the custom of the Ferrar family to cover their
books when bound in velvet outer-covers richly gilt. A copy of Ferrar's " Whole Law
of God," bound in green velvet, was given by Archbishop Laud to the library of
St. John's College, Oxford, where it remains to this day. Eleven of the Gidding
" Harmonies " have been traced, six of these are in leather gold tooled, four in velvet
heavily gilt, and one in red parchment with the four corners and centres of the sides
adorned with pierced parchment superimposed, and gilded. In 1648 the soldiers of the
Parliament attacked and plundered Ferrar's house ; he and his family saved themselves
only by flight.

Sir Kenelm Digby, who gave one of his collections of books to the Bodleian,
formed another in France, where he resided after the execution of Charles I., and
employed some of the most famous binders of the time to adorn his books, which are
now chiefly to be found in the National Library, Paris. Archbishop Laud, Sir Kenelm
Digby, the " great " Sheldon of Beoley, and many English noblemen and commoners
caused a plain shield of arms to be stamped in gold upon the sides of their books.

Oliver Cromwell caused his arms to be placed upon some of his books, but during
his Protectorate the art of bookbinding did not flourish in England. With the restora-
tion English bookbinding entered upon a new phase.

(1660 — 1685, Charles II.) Charles II. appears to have acquired a taste for solid
and well ornamented bindings. His favourite cipher, two interlaced C's, crowned,
placed within a laurel wreath, appears upon the covers of many English-bound volumes
in the old royal collection. From this time to about 1720 some good imitations of
Le Gascon were made in London. Hugh Hutchinson (1665—1683) and his contem-
poraries at Oxford and Cambridge produced many good bindings, and towards the
end of the seventeenth century the " cottage-roof" style begins to appear. It is seen
on "The Book of Common Prayer" (London, 1669), with King Charles II.'s cipher
' J. S. B. Mayor, " Life of N. Ferrar," by his brother, ed. Cambridge, 1855.

ENGLISH ROY A BINDINGS. 233

among the ornaments; it appears upon the copy of prayers used by George III
at his coronation in 1760. It is said that this ornament was used in France so early
as 1630 ; but it appears to have quickly died out in that country, and to have flourished
in England, especially at Oxford and Cambridge, where the binders adopted it for
the books printed at local presses. Samuel Merne was King Charles II.'s binder.

John Evelyn is said to have introduced French models into England, and work
was done in imitation of the square Le Gasconesque, which Boyet in Paris was begin-
ning to make his own.1 The fan-shaped toolings also became popular among English
binders during the seventeenth century.

It was about the end of the seventeenth century that bindings in tortoiseshell and
silver mounts became very fashionable, especially in the Netherlands and France, whence
they were frequently brought to England ; and of these several beautiful specimens may
be seen at South Kensington Museum.

The backs of many old books were rendered more attractive by gilt ornament, and
whole libraries were often uniformly adorned in this way. So Samuel Pepys records in
his diary: "28 Aug. 1666. — Comes the bookbinder to gild the backs of my books."
Pepys also says that he possessed a binding by Nott, the Londoner, who bound the
books for Lord Clarendon's library.

(1685 — 1688, James II.) James II. has not left many examples of binding, but
there is in the British Museum a Cambridge Bible of 1674, bound in crimson velvet,
handsomely embroidered with gold and silver thread and coloured silks, with the initials
of James II. surmounted by a crown.

(1694 — 1702, William III.) William III. and Queen Anne (1702 — 1714) had books
bound and stamped with their initials, but as regards ornament there was little if any to
relieve their sombre book-covers. At South Kensington Museum may be seen a Prayer
Book which once belonged to Queen Anne ; it is bound in black leather blind-tooled,
nd has the queen's monogram under a crown, several times repeated. Most of the
eat binders of this period copied the work of Boyet ; but some examples of mosaic
work of great brilliancy show a marked individuality. This kind of work is said to have
been done chiefly in London ; it ceased to be produced after the death of Queen Anne.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century a school of Scotch bookbinders appears,
and disappears again about 1730. The chief characteristic of their work was a bright
and sparkling effect produced by dots and small leaves of gold. The leather was
generally coloured blue. The style was continued in a degenerate form till 1750.

From the reign of Queen Anne to that of William IV., books belonging to the
English sovereigns were generally bound plainly, and adorned only with small toolings
and the royal arms in gold ; but the sovereigns of the house of Hanover occasionally
displayed great taste and magnificence in their bindings. It is believed that Her
Majesty Queen Victoria takes an especial interest in this branch of applied art. The
late Prince Consort did much to raise it from the degenerate state into which it had
fallen, and several members of the royal family have become its patrons.
1 Mr. B. Quaritch, " A Brief History of Decorative Binding."

2^6

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

The royal library at Windsor is famous for a magnificent collection of bindings,
including specimens of the work of the most famous binders, both English and foreign,
as well as' many royal bindings of great beauty. It is, in a great measure, owing to this
patronage that the art of bookbinding has risen during the last fifty years to the
position of a fine art.

ORNAMENT FROM A PANEL OF A BINDING MADE FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH.

Iks. ■=. //TT.^1- A\\\ = a=

^w^v/^T^^/^//^

CHAPTER XV.1

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING.

OR some years after the Revolution no sensible progression or
improvement in bookbinding was evident. The art, if not retro-
grading, made no advance, and no names, either as patrons or
practitioners, in this country or France, occur to redeem the end of
the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century from being
characterised as a dark portion of its history. But a new and brilliant
era was about commencing, that was to give a stimulus to the efforts
of the English binders, and, by the influence of example, to considerably increase
the number of patrons of the art. A taste for the collection and establishment of
large and valuable libraries began to develop soon after the commencement of the
eighteenth century. This materially influenced the sale of books, and incidentally
every branch of the book trade. New works more frequently appeared, and, from
the increased demand, in the course of years, old ones, that had lain dormant in small
collections, or the secluded libraries of convents on the Continent, were submitted to
public competition. As a consequence from the greater number of books the art of
bookbinding began to revive.

The first and most distinguished of the collectors of the eighteenth century was
Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, whose fine library, now in the British Museum, attests
his spirit as a collector, and his munificent patronage of everything connected with
literature. When we consider the number of great men at that time forming collections,
we need not feel surprise that the eighteenth century, presenting, as it did, so extensive
a field for the talent and energy of the British bookbinder, was productive of most
satisfactory results.

1 The head-piece represents three armorial binding-stamps : to the left, the arms of Mirabeau ; in
the centre, a badge of one of the Tudor sovereigns ; to the right, the Boleyn badge used by Queen
Elizabeth.

237

238

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

The books in the Harleian Collection are principally bound in red morocco,
presenting but little variety in the style of finish. They are respectably and soundly

''DECLARATION OF FAITH " (LONDON, I729).
BINDING IN RED MOROCCO WITH RICH GOLD TOOLING (COTTAGE-ROOF STYLE).

{Attributed to Elliot and Chapman.')

bound, with a broad border of gold round the sides, some with the addition of a centre
ornament. The tools used are small, and the centre ornament lozenge-shaped ; a pine-

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. 239

apple is one of the tools commonly occurring. The fore edges of the leaves are left
plain, and the end-papers are Dutch marble. The artists by whom these books were
bound are said to have been Elliot and Chapman, names which are associated with
the distinctive and elegant style which marked the best designs of the eighteenth century.

This description furnishes a fair specimen of the general style of binding till near
the close of the eighteenth century. Materials, of course, differed, but morocco, russia,
and brown calf were the principal substances used. The art may be said to have
progressed more in the forwarding, or early stages, than in the finishing ; for, it must be
confessed, that the selection of tools for gilding did not often display the best taste ;
birds, trees, ships, etc., being indiscriminately applied to the backs of books whose
contents were frequently diametrically opposite to what the ornament selected would
lead any one to suppose ; and the tools also were of the poorest design, natural without
an attempt at conventionality. But we must except a few of the bindings of the period,
which show better taste.

One Mr. Thomas Hoiks had his books decorated in a singular manner. He-
employed the then celebrated artist Pingo to cut a number of emblematical devices,
as the caduceus of Mercury, the wand of ^Esculapius, the cap of liberty, owls, etc. With
these the backs and sometimes the sides of his books were ornamented. When
patriotism animated a work, he adorned it with caps of liberty, and the pitgio or short
sword used by the Roman soldiers ; when wisdom filled the page, the owl's majestic
gravity indicated the contents ; the caduceus pointed out eloquence ; and the wand of
^Esculapius was the signal for good medicines.1

The bindings of Oxford and Cambridge continued to be celebrated for their
superior workmanship, and are held in high estimation by several modern collectors.
The characteristics of the bindings of which we are now speaking are a peculiar firmness
and improved taste of finish. They are in plain calf, with bands and marbled edges, the
spaces between being filled up with gilt tooling.

The middle of the eighteenth century witnessed the introduction of the sawn back,
whereby the bands on which the book is sewn are let into the backs of the sheets, and
thus no projection appears, as is seen in most bindings of a previous date. Where it
was first used is not known, but it is considered the Dutch binding first gave the idea.
Although it was adopted by many of the English and French binders with repugnance,
it became fashionable. Bands, or raised cords, were soon only used for school books,
which species of binding was then universally known as sheep bands. The general kind
of binding from that time, up to the end of the eighteenth century, was what is termed
calf gilt, being done almost all to one pattern, the sides marbled,2 the backs being
brown, with coloured lettering-pieces, and full gilt. Open backs had been little intro-
duced, and the backs of the books were made remarkably stiff, to prevent the leather
from wrinkling when they were opened.

1 Home's "Introduction," ii. 306.

2 On the invention of this process great caution was used to keep it secret, and books were
obliged to be sent to the inventor to be marbled at a high price. Marbled paper, however, was in use
in the sixteenth century in Italy and perhaps in other countries (see p. 167).

240 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

The artists of the earlier part of the period of which we have been treating must
have been numerous, but few are known. Two German binders, named Baumgarten
and Benedict, were of considerable note, and in extensive employment in London
during the early part of this century.1 Who the distinguished binders at Oxford
were has. not been recorded ; but a man named Dawson, then living at Cambridge,
has the reputation of being a clever artist,2 and may be pronounced as the binder of
many of the substantial volumes still possessing the distinctive binding we have before
referred to. Baumgarten and Benedict would, doubtless, be employed in every style of
binding of their day ; but the chief characteristics of their efforts are good substantial
volumes in russia, with marbled edges. In the latter years of the eighteenth century
several French political refugees emigrated to London, and found employment as book-
binders, introducing the style they had learnt as amateurs in France ; Du Lau, the
friend of Chateaubriand, the Vicomte de Brecy, and the Comte de Caumont belonged
to this fraternity.

A later artist, and one to whom, perhaps, may be attributed the first impulse given
to the improvements which then were introduced into bindings, was John Mackinlay, one
of the largest and most creditable binders in London of the period. Several specimens
of his work in public and private libraries remain to justify the character given him ;
and of the numerous artists that his office produced, many have, in later days, given good
proof that the lessons they received were of a high character.

(J739 — 1797-) Towards the end of the eighteenth century a total change in the aspect
of bookbinding was effected by the taste, ingenuity, and efforts of one Roger Payne ; it
was he who first attempted to produce bindings ornamented in harmony with the
character of the books, and to invent an original style of decoration, which, if not always
conspicuously good, is usually meritorious. Roger Payne was born in Windsor Forest
early in the eighteenth century. After passing his early years at Eton with Pote the
bookseller, he came to London, to be apprenticed to Thomas Osborne, a bookseller in
Holborn, and was, some time about the years 1766 — 1770, fixed as a binder near Leicester
Square by his namesake, Thomas Payne, the eminent bookseller, then living at the
Mews Gate. His great taste in the choice of ornaments, and judicious application of
them, soon procured him numerous patrons among the noble and wealthy ; and had his
conduct been equal to his ability, it would have been better for himself as well as
for the art he practised. His books are not so well forwarded as it has been the fortune
of the present day to witness. His favourite colour appears to have been olive, which
he called Venetian. He also liked to work upon straight-grained morocco, stained dark
blue or bright red, but some of his best efforts are found upon Russian leather (first
imported to this country early in the eighteenth century). His ornaments were the great
boast of his bindings. They were chaste, beautiful, classical, and most correctly executed,
the sides being the field in which he shone most conspicuously. The ornaments of
his backs, and his mode of managing bands, were peculiarly his own, and books executed

1 Dibdin's " Bib. Dec," ii.

2 Hartshorne's " Boo ; Rarities of Cambridge," 18.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. 241

by him are quickly discovered by these characteristic marks. A Glasgow ^Eschylus'
folio (1795), in the Spencer Library, which contains many specimens of his binding, is
considered to be the chef d'asuvre of his workmanship. Of the style and quantity
of work employed, the following bill, delivered with it, will show, and also exhibit a
curious specimen of his style : —

Aeschylus Glasguae, MDCCXCV Flaxman Illustravit. Bound in the very best manner,
sew'd with strong Silk, every Sheet round every Band, not false Bands; The Back 'lined with
Russia Leather, Cut Exceeding large ; Finished in the most magnificent manner. Em-border'd
with ERMINE expressive of The High Rank of The Noble Patroness of The Designs ; The
other Parts Finished in the most elegant Taste with small Tool Gold Borders Studded with Gold ;
and small Tool Panes of the most exact Work. Measured with the compasses. It takes a great
deal of Time, making out the different Measurements ; preparing the Tools ; and making out New
Patterns. The Back Finished in Compartments with parts of Gold studded Work, and open Work
to Relieve the Rich close studded Work. All the Tools except studded points, are obliged to be
workt off plain first — and afterwards the Gold laid on and worked off again. And this Gold Work
requires Double Gold, being on Rough Grain'd Morocco.

The Impressions of the Tools must be bitted and cover'd at the bottom with Gold to prevent flaws,
and cracks 12 12 o

Fine Drawing Paper for Inlaying The Designs ^s. 6d. Finest Pickt Lawn
Paper for Interleaving The Designs is. 6d. 1 yd. and a half of silk 10s. 6d.
Inlaying the Designs at id. each, 32 Designs. 1. 1. 4. . .. . . 1 19 o

Mr. Morton adding Borders to the Drawings 1 16 o

£1° 7 o
This talented, but tipsy, bookbinder did all his work with his own hands, as far as
possible ; the folding, beating, sewing, cutting, mending, head-banding, and colouring of
his end-papers, as well as making his own tools and letters, both of which latter were
made of iron ; some of them are yet preserved as curiosities, and specimens of the skill
of the man. To the occupation of tool-cutting he may have been driven at times by
the lack of money to procure tools from the makers ; but it cannot be set down as
being generally so, for in the formation of the designs in which he so much excelled, it
is but reasonable to suppose, arguing from the practice of some binders in later times,
he found it readier and more expedient to manufacture certain lines, curves, etc., on the
occasion, than to trust to inferior skill of the ordinary workman. Be that as it may, he
succeeded in executing bindings in a manner so superior as to have no rival among
his contemporaries, and to command the admiration of the most fastidious book-lover of
his time. He had full employment from the noble and wealthy, and the estimation in
which his bindings are still held is a proof of their excellence. His best work was done
for the Spencer Library. The following bill relates to an ancient edition of Petrarch in
that collection : —

The paper was very weak, especialy at ye Back of this Book. I was
obliged to use new paper in ye Washing to keep the Book from being
torn or broken. To paper for Washing, ...•■•■ 20

To Washing their was a great deal of Writing Ink and the bad stains,
it required several washings to make the paper of the Book quite safe,

16

242 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

for, tho the Book with one or two washings would look as well at present,
it will not stand the test of Time without repeated washings. Carefully

and quite Honestly done, . 9 °

To Sise-ing very carefuly and Strong, 76

To Sise the Book, .......... 16

To mending every Leaf in the Book, for every Leaf wanted it thro' the
whole Book, especialy in ye Back Margins. I have sett .down ye number
of pieces to each Leaf,1 .......... 10 6

Cleaning the whole Book ......... 40

The Book had been very badly folded and the' Leaves very much 1 14 6
out of square ; I was obliged to Compass every leaf single, and mark the
irregular parts, and take them off without parting the sise of the Copy,
very carefully, and Honestly done, ....... 36

The Book being all Single Leaves, I was obliged to stich it with silk
fine and white, to prepare it for sewing done in the Best manner and
uncommon, ............ 26

The copy of the Book was in very bad Condition when I received it.
The most Antiq. Edition I think I have ever seen. I have done the
very best ; I spared no time to make as good and fair a Copy as is in my
power to do for any Book, that ever did, or ever will, or ever can be
done by another workman ■ thinking it a very fine unique edition. Bound
in the very best manner in Venetian Coloured morocco leather, sewed
with silk, the Back lined with a Russia Leather. Finished in the Antiq.
Taste, very Correctly lettered, and very fine small Tool Work, neat
Morocco joints, Fine Drawing Paper inside to suite the colour of the
Original paper of the Book. The Outside Finished in a True Scientific
ornamental Taste magnificent. The Book finished in the Antiq. Taste,
very correctly letter'd in Work. The Whole finished in the very Best
manner for preservation and elegant Taste, . . . . . .470

Here we have the whole minutia of the mode of proceeding, and this appears to
have been a peculiarity in all his bills, each book of his binding being accompanied by
a written description of the ornaments in a like precise and curious style. Here is
another relative to a book bound for Dr. Moseley, which also exhibits a little jealousy
of his brethren of the craft, or a due appreciation of his own talent, by the contemptuous
manner he refers to them : —

Versalii Humani Corporis fab?-ica. The title Washed, Cleaned and very neatly Mended, The
opposite Leaf Ditto. The Portrate Margins Cleaned and the opposite Leaf Ditto. Fine
Drawing Paper inside, exceedingly neat and strong morocco joints. Fine purple paper inside
very neat. The Outsides Finished with Double Panes and Corner Tools agreable to the Book.
The Back finished in a very elegant manner with small Tools, the Boards required Peice-ing with
Strong Boards and strong Glue to prevent future Damage to the Corners of the Book. 2 Cutts
new Guarded. The former Book-binder had mended it very badly as usial. I have done the
very Best Work in my Power according to Orders, took up a great deal of Time. o/. 15J. ad.

1 At foot of the bill is an enumeration of the pieces.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING.

243

In another bill he says : —

The Back covered with Russia Leather, before the outside cover was put on. N.B. The
Common practice of Book-binders is to line their Books with Brown or Cartridge Paper, the
paper Lining splits and parts from the Backs and will not last for Time and much reading.

These are only a few of the curious and characteristic specimens of the bills of our
artist, but they are sufficient to attest the superiority of his workmanship. Payne's
reputation as an artist of the greatest merit was obscured, and eventually nearly lost,

PORTRAIT OF ROGER PAYNE.

{Copied from a contemporary etching done for Tom Payne the bookseller.)

by his intemperate habits. He love'd drink better than meat. Of this propensity an
anecdote is related of a memorandum of money spent by himself, which runs thus : —

For Bacon, - 1 half-penny,
For Liquor, - 1 shilling.

No wonder then that, with habits like these, the efforts of his patron, in establishing him,
were rendered of no avail. Instead of rising to that station his great talent would have
led to, he fell by his dissolute conduct to the lowest depth of misery and wretched-
ness. Of his squalid appearance an idea may be formed by the engraving. It is
taken from a print, which Thomas Payne caused to be executed after the death of this
erratic genius, and exhibits the man in his wretched working-room, as in life he daily
appeared. Here, however, were executed the splendid specimens of binding we have

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

before referred to ; and here on the same shelf were mixed together old shoes, precious
leaves, and bread and cheese, with the most valuable and costly manuscripts, or early
printed books.

That he was eccentric may be judged by what has been related of him. He

MOROCCO BINDING BY RuliHU

E, GOLD AND BLIND TOOLED, A CAMEO INSERTED IN THE CENTRE OF EACH
COVER, UPON "VIRGILIUS" (VENICE, I505).

{From the Cracherocle Collection at the British Museum.)

appears also to have been a poet on the subject of his unfortunate propensity, as the
following extract from a copy of verses, sent with a bill to Mr. Evans, for binding
" Barry on the Wines of the Ancients," proves ; —

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. 245

" Homer the bard, who sung in highest strains
The festive gift, a goblet, for his pains ;
Falernian gave Horace, Virgil fire,
And Barley Wine my British Muse inspire.
Barley Wine, first from Egypt's learned shore;
And this the gift to me of Calvert's store."

At one time Payne entered into partnership with Richard Weir ; but he did not
agree with him, so a separation speedily took place. He afterwards worked under the
roof of J. Mackinlay, but his later efforts .showed that he had lost much of that ability
with which he had been so largely endowed. Pressed down with poverty and disease,
he breathed his last in Duke's Court. St. Martin's Lane, on November 20th, 1797.
His remains were interred in the burying-grourid of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, at the
expense of Thomas Payne, the bookseller, who, as before stated, had been his early
friend, and who, for the last eight years of his life, had rendered him a regular pecuniary
assistance both for the support of his body and the performance of his work.1

Of the merits and defects of his bindings, one well qualified to judge, and to
whose researches we are indebted for greater part of this memoir, has thus recorded
his opinion, with which we shall close our account : —

" The great merit of Roger Payne lay in his taste — in his choice of ornaments,
and especially in the working of them. In his lining, joints, and inside ornaments
our hero generally, and sometimes melancholily failed. He was fond of what he called
purple paper, the colour of which was as violent as its texture was coarse. It was
liable also to change and become spotty ; and as a harmonising colour with olive
it was odiously discordant. The joints of his books were generally disjointed, uneven,
carelessly tooled, and having a very unfinished appearance. His backs are boasted of
for their firmness. His work excellently forwarded — every sheet fairly and bond-fide
stitched into the back, which was afterwards usually coated in russia ; but his minor
volumes did not open well in consequence. He was too fond of thin boards ; which
in folios produces an uncomfortable effect, from fear of their being inadequate to
sustain the weight of the envelope." 2

The example of Roger Payne's binding here given shows the distinguishing features
of his work ; he obtained broad effects by massing minute tooling in well-defined fields,
and leaving the remainder of the surface plain. The tooling is exact, and the forms
of the tools elementary.

When Payne excels his designs are most simple, original, and elegant. Fortunately
his bad habits did not entirely quench his artistic instincts.

Richard Weir, Roger Payne's partner, was not a whit less dissolute than Payne.
1774 he and his wife were employed at Toulouse, in binding and repairing the books
in Count Macarthy's library, where they were succeeded by Derome. The connection
between Weir and Roger Payne, as might be expected from the habits of both, was
of short duration. The partners were generally quarrelling, and Weir, being a man
of strong muscular build, used sometimes to proceed to thrashing his less powerful
1 Nichols' " Literary Anecdotes," iii. 736. 2 Dibdin's "Bib. Dec," ii. 508.

246 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

coadjutor. Payne is said to have composed a sort of " Memoir of the Civil War " between
them. After their separation Weir went abroad, and, being taken prisoner by a privateer,
he is said to have threatened to demolish half the crew if they did not liberate him.
He worked the latter part of his life with Mackinlay.1 Mrs. Weir, if not actually a
bookbinder, was a most skilful book-restorer. Her skill in mending defective leaves
was such that, unless held up to the light, the renovation was imperceptible. On
her return from France she went to Edinburgh, to repair the books in the Record
Office in that city. A portrait of her is given in Dibdin's " Decameron."

Though Roger Payne's career had not been successful so far as he was personally
concerned, it had the effect of benefiting the whole race of English bookbinders. A
stimulus had been given to the trade, and a new and chastened style introduced
among the more talented artists of the metropolis. The debased tools, before alluded
to, were discarded, and a series of highly finished designs, geometrical or pseudo-classical,
were adopted, and the urns and rosettes of the Adams' style found a reflex on the
covers of books.

The contemporaries and followers of Roger Payne, the five Germans, Baumgarten,
Benedict, Walther, Staggemeier, and Kalthceber, were working in London about the
commencement of the eighteenth century, and producing much solid work in gilded
calf and morocco.

Kalthceber's work is the most famous ; the ornaments are generally of large pro-
portion, but his brilliant gold and rose-coloured morocco are still appreciated. He
rediscovered or revived the ancient method of painting the edges of books, and in
this manner decorated some of his best work. In conjunction with Charles Lewis, he
bound most of the books in the Beckford Library at Fonthill. Hering, Falkner, Charles
Lewis, Clarke, Mackenzie, Fairbairn, and Smith were the most distinguished names
among the London binders of that time.

Johnson and Gosden were excellent workmen, the latter being famous for his
emblematical tooling for books on angling.

The Royal Institution possesses the best specimen of Staggemeier's skill, in the
binding of the " Didot Horace," of 1799, presented by Thomas Hope ; it is in blue
morocco, and embellished with ornaments cut after antique models.

Henry Falkner, celebrated as an honest, industrious, and excellent bookbinder,
who, in his mode of rebinding ancient books, was not only scrupulously particular in the
preservation of that important part of a volume, the margin ; but his tooling was at once
tasteful and exact.2 Falkner, after thus giving satisfaction to his patrons, and bidding
fair to be the first binder of his day, died of consumption in 181 2, leaving a large family,
which, it is but justice to state, were materially assisted by those who had employed
and respected their father.

Charles Hering. After the death of Roger Payne, Hering, for about twelve years,
was considered the head of the craft. He was an extremely skilful binder, and a
remarkably industrious man. His bindings exhibit a strength and squareness, with
1 Dibdin's "Bib. Dec," ii., 567. 2 Dibdin's "Bibliomania," 264.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. 247

a good style of finish, which renders his work of much value, and establishes the
reputation accorded to him. His faults were a too great fondness for double head-bands,
and the use of brown paper linings, with a little inclination to the German taste.
After Charles Hering's death his business was conducted by his brother with success.

John Whitaker was celebrated as the restorer of deficient portions of works printed
by Caxton, etc., by the use of brass type, and as the inventor of gold printing, now
become nearly general. He introduced a new style of binding, to which the name of
Etruscan has been given. This style he employed for the binding of many of the
copies of the Magna Charta, printed by himself in gold. The binding of the copy
of Magna Charta belonging to King George IV. is magnificent. The covers are nearly
a mass of gold ornament ; it is lined with crimson silk, richly gilt.

Charles Lewis, one of the most eminent binders the British capital has produced,
was born in London in the year 1786 ; and at the age of fourteen became apprentice to
Walther. After serving the full period of his apprenticeship, and working as a
journeyman in several shops in the metropolis, he commenced business on his own
account in Scotland Yard. At that place, and subsequently in Denmark Court, Strand,
and Duke Street, Piccadilly, he displayed as much perseverance and attention in the
management of his business, as skill and energy in pursuit of his art. Lewis was
at the head of his profession between 1802 and 1840; elegant and classical in all he
did, his style is too sober for modern taste. He was a pupil of Payne's school, but
excelled his master in the freedom of his forwarding and the elegance of his finish.
Lewis's bindings are to be found in nearly all the libraries of fifty years' standing, for
some of which he worked very extensively, and to the satisfaction of his employers. On
the character of his binding, Dr. Dibdin has thus enlarged : " The particular talent of
Lewis consists in uniting the taste of Roger Payne with a freedom of forwarding and
squareness of finishing peculiarly his own. His books appear to move on silken hinges.
His joints are beautifully squared, and wrought upon with studded gold ; and in
inside decorations he stands without a compeer. Neither loaf-sugar paper, nor brown,
nor pink, nor poppy-coloured paper are therein discovered ; but a subdued orange, or
buff, harmonising with russia ; a slate or French grey, harmonising- with morocco ; or an
antique or deep crimson tint, harmonising with sprightly calf: these are the surfaces,
or ground colours, to accord picturesquely with which Charles Lewis brings his leather
and tooling into play ! To particularise would be endless ; but I cannot help just
noticing, that in his orange and Venetian moroccos, from the sturdy folio to the pliant
duodecimo — to say nothing of his management of what he is pleased facetiously to call
binding a la mode frangaise — he has struck out a line, or fashion, or style, not only
exclusively his own, as an English artist, but, modelled upon the ornaments of the
Grolier and De Thou volumes, infinitely beyond what has yet been achieved in the
same bibliopegist department. It is due to state, that Lewis's book restorations equal
even the union of skill in Roger Payne and Mrs. Weir. We may say —
' And what was Roger once, is Lewis now.' " '
1 Dibdin's "Bib. Dec," ii.

24« A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

In quite another style are the numerous tomes in velvet which repose securely upon
the shelves of the libraries of the chapter-houses at York and Ripon. Lewis had two
younger brothers, George and Frederick, also bookbinders. The Duke of Devonshire,
Earl Grenville, and Lords Spencer and Lansdowne were his patrons.

After a very successful career, and in the enjoyment of an extended business, Lewis
was seized with apoplexy, in the month of December 1835, from which he never
recovered, expiring on the eighth day of January, 1836. His eldest son carried on the
business.

Smith and Clarke, the imitators of Lewis, both produced elegant bindings in their
master's manner. John Clarke struck out a new style in later years when he imitated
Grolieresque patterns.

Lewis assisted Clarke in binding the books in the library of the Rev. Theodore
Williams. For this work Clarke deserves to be mentioned with commendation.
Although these bindings, as a rule, were of plain morocco externally, they were finished
with leather joints inside, and sewn with silk upon bands. No binder can surpass the
forwarding and finishing of these books. Clarke is also famous for his tree-marbled
calf-work.1 In combination with Bedford, he produced many fine "library bindings"
for Mr. Huth and other collectors.

Francis Bedford was born in London in the year 1 800 ; he was sent to school in
Yorkshire, and, when quite young, articled to Haigh, the bookbinder, of Poland Street,
London, but he completed his time with Finlay. Afterwards he found a situation in the
shop of the then leading binder of the day, Charles Lewis, with whom he worked till
death removed his master ; he then carried on the business for Mrs. Lewis. It was
about that time that the Duke of Portland became the friend and patron of the talented
youth. For a time Bedford, having left his old employer, entered into partnership with
John Clarke ; but after a few years he dissolved the partnership, and established himself
at 91, York Street, Westminster. Here he produced his best work, and speedily attained
a world-wide reputation as the leading bookbinder of the day. He died at the ripe old
age of eighty-three in the year 1883.2

Although Bedford was the greatest binder of his time, he possessed little originality
as a designer. He attained some good results by imitating early Venetian work,
with twisted or Saracenic ornament, as well as the later Veneto-Lyonese style as
exhibited in the English binding of Queen Elizabeth's time ; but his copies of modern
French tooling are less successful.3 Bedford's bindings are solid, substantial, and sober ;
they have little artistic merit. Riviere worked on similar lines, but displayed considerable
freedom in his designs, and wonderful skill in finishing his work.

Mr. Zaehnsdorf is the chief London binder of the present time ; he is the head of a
great establishment, and his name is sufficient to guarantee excellence of workmanship.

1 Mr. Joseph Cundall, The Bookbinder, vol. iii., p. 2r.

2 An excellent memoir of Francis Bedford may be found in 7'lie Bookbinder, vol. i., p. 55.

3 Mr. Bernard Quaritch : "A Short History of Bookbinding."

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING.

249

When left to indulge his own taste, he frequently achieves great results : he is a worthy
successor to Bedford and Riviere.

Among the provincial bookbinders, Mr. Cedric Chivers, of Bath, stands first for true
artistic instinct. His latest achievements, in hand-wrought and gold-tooled leather, place
him on a level with the best binders of the sixteenth century. There is a lightness and

BINDING IN EMBOSSED AND GOLD-TOOLED LEATHER. BY MR. CTl'RI' CHIVERS OF BATT

(Reduced fro

inal 12; by 10 in.)

brightness about his work, which, when combined with originality of design, and con-
sistency of treatment, produce a result both harmonious and chaste.

An example1 in tree-marbled calf, with a sunk panel of hand-wrought calf, of the
natural colour, ornamented with a raised design of conventional foliage, and relieved by a
background gold-tooled in pointille, will compare favourably with the best work of any
ancient or modern binder.

1 Upon '■ The Art Rambler," 1890. A New Year's gift from my mother. — Ed.

250 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Some Modern Styles of Bookbinding. — We must now again retrace our
steps a little in order to review the different styles of binding in various materials, which
came into fashion in the early years of the century. About 1830 a taste arose for
bindings in materials used in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Velvet and silk
were reintroduced for drawing-room table books ; the former, owing to the difficulty in
lettering upon it, was not so general as the latter, which was very extensively adopted
for a certain class of books. Modern velvet bindings, however, were introduced into
many libraries, among which may be named the collection of King George III., the
libraries of York Minster, Ripon Cathedral, and Earl Spencer.

A style called the Etruscan, it has been said, was invented and successfully practised
by John Whitaker. This consisted of the execution of designs in tints instead of a
series of gold ornament. Castles, churches, tented fields, Etruscan vases, gothic and
arabesque compartments were executed in their proper colours, and a very curious
effect produced. The library of Earl Spencer contains a copy of Wynkyn de Worde's
"Art and Craft of Living and Dying Well," folio (1503), bound in this style. The
Russian leather sides are embossed with the device of the printer, and the leather lining
is adorned with a diamond pattern gilt. The Marquis of Bath probably possesses the
best specimen of Whitaker's talents as a binder. It consists of a copy of Caxton's
"Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye," bound in russia. The back represents a tower, in
imitation of stone. On the battlements is a flag, upon the folds of which the lettering
is. introduced, in a character similar to that of the text. On a projection of the tower the
name of the printer is impressed. On the outsides of the cover classic armour in relief,
and round it is a raised impression of the reeded axe. The edges of the leaves of this
curious volume are gilt, and upon them are painted various Grecian devices. On the
insides of the covers (which are likewise russia) are drawings in India ink, of Andromache
imploring Hector not to go out to fight on the verso ; and on the recto the death of
Hector.1

Messrs. Edwards, booksellers of Halifax, in Yorkshire, successfully pursued this
style of binding, and some of their books exhibit borders of Greek and Etruscan vases,
executed in a superior manner.

J. Hering revived stamped calf binding ; but though practised for some time, for the
want of a power of compression, his work did not exhibit the sharpness which we see on
the impressed bindings of former times : the designs chosen were without merit, and the
dies badly cut. To our neighbours, the French, must be accorded the honour of the
invention of the modern arabesque stamped binding, and for its speedy introduction
into, and successful operation in, this country, to Messrs. Remnant & Edmunds, of
Lovel's Court, Paternoster Row, London. This firm bound some of the "Annuals" in
stamped leather bindings. Prayer-books, too, were at that time often covered in
leather, stamped with a traceried window in bastard Gothic style.

Few patents have been taken out for bookbinding, and most of the improvements
have reference to purely mechanical processes scarcely worthy of serious attention.
1 Dibdin's "Bib. Dec," ii., 526.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. 251

The practice of sewing books with wire cannot be regarded in the light of an improve-
ment ; neither can Hancock's patent for indiarubbcr binding. Benjamin Cook, of
Birmingham, who patented a japanned iron binding early in the nineteenth century, is
now forgotten, like his fire-proof covers ; but James Edwards' patent (No. 1462, A.D.
1785), an improvement in the mode of ornamenting the sides of parchment-bound books,
is worth a passing notice. A piece of very transparent vellum was taken, and upon the
back of it was painted or printed a design in such a manner as to show through the
vellum. This was then pasted upon the side of a book-cover (a piece of white paper
having been placed underneath previously), so that the design shows through the
parchment or vellum. This process has a distinct advantage over that at present
pursued by several ladies, whose painted vellum book-covers are too delicate to admit
of handling. Mr. J. Toovey has seven or eight examples of Edwards' work in his
collection ; and in each case the drawing or painting is on the inner side of the vellum-
On a Baskerville Prayer Book, once belonging to Queen Charlotte, and now in the
British Museum, the vellum cover is ornamented in this manner : it has also a drawing
on the fore edge. The inventor, James Edwards, was a well-known publisher and
bookseller, and the son of Edwards, of Halifax, the introducer of painted book edges.1

The French also invented a species of illuminated binding, in imitation of some of the
interior embellishments of ancient missals. This method was for some time kept secret ;
but one of our enterprising countrymen, Mr. Evans, of Berwick Street, Soho, London,
after much expense, introduced it into this country. It is a binding of some magnifi-
cence, uniting the varied beauties of the arabesque and gilt ornament with the illuminated
decorations of manuscripts before the invention of printing, but quite unsuited for the
adornment of book-covers.

Landscapes have also been painted on the sides as well as the edges of books ;
engraved portraits, and other designs have been transferred to the sides. Indeed
nothing that could tend to the embellishment of modern bookbinding appears to have
been neglected.

A peculiarity in some bindings must not be overlooked.- This is, in the coincidence
of the cover and the nature of the book. Whitaker bound a copy of " Tuberville on
Hunting" in deer-skin, on the cover of which was placed a stag in silver. Jeffery, the
bookseller, bound Foxe's historical work in fox?s skin.

In the first edition of Dibdin's " Library Companion " occurs a story of a strange
binding : —

" A curious anecdote, not altogether unbibliographical, belongs to Anson's ' Voyage
round the World.' Mordaunt Cracherode, the father of the Rev. C. M. Cracherode,
of celebrated book fame, went out to make his fortune, as a commander of the Marines,
in Anson's ship. He returned, in consequence of his share of prize-money, a wealthy
man : hence the property of his son, and hence the ' Bibliotheca Cracherodiana,' in the
British Museum. A droll story is told of the father, of which the repetition is pardon-

1 The Library, vol. iv. (1892), p. 228, "The Bibliography of Bookbinding and Binding
Patents," by R. B. P.

252 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

able. It is said that he returned from this Ansonian circumnavigation in the identical
buck-skins which he wore on leaving England — they having been objects of his exclu-
sive attachment during the whole voyage ! Far, however, be it from me to give
credence to the report that there is one particular volume, in the Cracherode Collection,
which is bomid in a piece of these identical buck-skins.!"1

There is in the British Museum a volume of Icelandic poetry (Bristol, 1797) [I. e. 6l,
b. 14], bound in a piece of the cast-off raiment of a gentle lady whose habits of thrift
caused her thus to perpetuate some of the volumes of her husband's library. Mrs.
Wordsworth's bookbinding propensities are mentioned in Southey's " Life." This book
is bound in cotton with a small white sprig upon a green ground.

Human Leather. — The strangest of all materials used in modern times for
covering books is human leather ; it is related that Dr. Askew had a book bound in
human skin, for the payment of which his binder prosecuted him.2

M. Camille Flammarion, the French astronomer, is said to be the possessor of a very
interesting specimen of reliure humaine. Some years ago the savant, turning his eyes
for a moment from the contemplation of celestial to terrestrial objects, was struck with
admiration for the white and gleaming shoulders of a countess whom he met casually.
A long period elapsed, and he had quite forgotten this little incident, when he received
one day a parcel, accompanied by a note explaining its contents. The lovely countess
was dead, and had bequeathed to him the skin that once covered her beautiful shoulders,
desiring him to bind therein the work in which he speaks so eloquently of the glimmering
world of stars. M. Flammarion did not hesitate to carry out the last wishes of his
departed friend, and the integument of the countess now clothes a copy of his well-known
volume, " Ciel et Terre."

In the library of the Prince of Wales at Marlborough House — fide Pall Mall Gazette
— there are said to be two volumes bound in leather, which was prepared from the skin
of Mary Patman, a Yorkshire witch, hanged for murder early in the century. It is
rumoured that a London bookseller, having on order a fantastic binding in this style,
for Holbein's " Dance of Death," despatched a commissioner to Paris with a view
of securing the skin of one of the citizens shot during the bloody week of the Commune.
The agent himself only escaped by the skin of his own teeth from sharing the fate of the
object of his search.

Andre Leroy was the proprietor of a volume which was bound up closely indeed
with the memory of Delille, the poet, seeing that its cover was composed of his epidermis.
Having gained admission, through Tissot, into the chamber where the embalming
process was going on, Leroy contrived to annex two fragments of his friend's integument,
and had them let into the gorgeous binding of " Les Georgiques " ; the volume being
still in the possession of M. Edmund Leroy, a lawyer at Valenciennes.

Alfred de Musset, the poet, sensitive though he was in many respects, felt no
compunction in being the owner of a "human document," bound by Derosne in 1796.

1 The Rev. T. F. Dibdin, " The Library Companion,'' edition 1824, p. 193.

2 Dibdin's "Bib. Dec," ii. 451.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING.

253

A copy of Suard's " Les Opuscules Philosophiques," bound in human leather, and
formerly the property of a Belgian statesman, was priced in a bookseller's catalogue
at 200 francs. Surely a high price for a binding so objectionable !

The most famous French specimen of reliure Iwmaim is that of " The Constitution
of 1793," which was said to be encased in leather prepared in a tannery for human skin,
established under the Reign of Terror at Meudon. A French journalist who has
investigated the matter says there is no truth in the legend, and we are quite of his
opinion. However, the tradition was obstinate, and M. Galetti, editor of the Journal
des Lois, who was one of its most active supporters, inserted the following advertisement
in his paper : —

" One of our subscribers has forwarded to us, as a worthy memorial of the tyranny
of the Decemvirs, a copy of 'The Constitution of 1793,' printed by Causse at Dijon,
and bound in human skin resembling tawny calf. We shall be pleased to show it to any
who are curious to see it."

This celebrated relic passed through many hands, among others those of Targot
and Villeneuve, and was acquired in 1889 for the Carnavalet Library. It is a i2mo
volume, very prettily bound, with tooled cross lines on the boards, and a lace pattern
on the inner edge. The edges are gilt, and the linings are of medium paper. A note
in Villeneuve's writing indicates the special interest attaching to it. The leather
resembles sheep-skin, only the grain is very firm, close, and polished, and remarkably
soft to the touch.

These and other particulars have been collected by the author of an article in the
Paris Temps, who has endeavoured to make his list complete ; but since he appears
not to have applied the test of microscopic examination to the leather, we accept the
evidence of tradition cum grano salis. The famous doors of Worcester Cathedral,
whereon, according to tradition, the skin of a sacrilegious Dane was nailed, have
successfully passed the ordeal of the microscope. We have ourselves handled a fragment
of the old human cuticle, which, to a casual observer, appears like ordinary leather. M.
Flammarion is said to be in constant fear lest some expert, handling the skin of his
beautiful countess, may remark, "Why, this is calf!"

SOME MODERN COLLECTORS. — In England the art of bookbinding can boast a
long list of patrons in the Dukes of Devonshire, Sutherland, Marlborough, and
Buccleuch, the Marquises of Lansdowne and Bath, Earls Spencer, Cawdor, Clare, and
Burlington, Lords Vernon and Acheson, the Honourable Thomas Grenville, Sir F.
Freeling, Sir R. Colt Hoare, Sir Mark Sykes, Baron Bolland, Mr. Heber, Dr. Dibdin,
Mr. Hibbert, Mr. Dent, Mr. Bernal, Mr. Drury, Mr. Petit, Mr. Huth, and a host of
others who have contributed much to the successful progress of the art.

The increased employment is shown by the number of master-binders in London,
AD. 1 8 12. At a general meeting in December of that year no less than one hundred
and fifty-nine subscribed their names to the regulations of prices, etc., adopted. Of these
many were first-rate artists. The leading London bookbinders fifty years ago were

254 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Adlard, Bird, Burn, Clarke, Fairbairn, Hering, Heydey, Leightons, Lidden, Macfarlane,
Mackenzie, Smith, Westley, Wickwar, and Wright.

The successful operation of some of the processes we have before referred to may
be attributable to the great improvements in machinery. The hydraulic press, the
rolling machine, and the arming or embossing press, and various appliances heated by
gas and propelled by steam, have done much for the rapid progress of work, and its
more perfect execution. The study of the antique in the ornaments used for finishing,
and the superior engraving of the tools, became general. And with the ability to
execute, on the part of the workman, a taste for the exterior decoration of books
rapidly spread throughout the country ; but unfortunately the designs were in most
cases either slavish copies of older work, or wretched attempts to invent a new style.

Cloth Binding. — This is a product ofithe nineteenth century. It is said to have been
introduced by Archibald Leighton in the year 1822. The first books bound in the new
material were the first volumes of Pickering's Miniature Aldine Classics (Dante), published
in 1 822 ; and the second book so issued in the same year was Thomas Moule's " Bibliotheca
Heraldica." These first cloth bindings had " a smooth washed " surface. It was not till
the year 1831 or 1832 that embossed cloth, as now used, was introduced. Leighton
suggested to De la Rue that with the appliances he possessed for embossing paper, a
better result might be obtained in cloth. The suggestion was acted upon, and a watered
silk pattern was applied to the cloth binding of " Lord Byron's Life and Works " (17 vols.),
the first volume of which was published in January 1832. The first volume appeared in
green cloth with a green paper label on the back, with the title and coronet printed upon
it in gold. The second volume, published in February 1832, has the title and coronet
stamped in gold upon the cloth, the paper label being dispensed with. This is a most
interesting point, and marks the exact date when stamping on cloth with gold was first
practised in a London binding shop.1

In those days it was customary to engrave cylinders with special patterns upon
them for particular books. This was done for " The Penny Cyclopaedia " and Knight's
" Pictorial England," both issued in large numbers.

Archibald Leighton, the elder, came to London from Aberdeen in 1764, and com-
menced business in Cold Bath Square, Clerkenwell. He was blessed with a family of
twenty-three children, of whom Archibald Leighton, junior, the inventor of cloth binding,
was the eldest son by his second wife. After his father's death young Archibald carried
on business in Exmouth Street. He died prematurely in 1841, leaving his son Robert, a
youth of nineteen, with the business of Leighton & Son on his hands. After several
removes the business was finally established in 1870 in New Street Square.

Forty to fifty years ago the stamping presses in use to produce the ornamental
covers of the dainty " Annuals " were heated with red-hot irons, constantly changed from
a fire near at hand, for gas was unknown in the workshops of those days, and the
finisher heated his tools at a charcoal brazier. There was no cutting machine but the

1 The Bookbinder, vol. i., p. 99.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING.

255

plough knife, and each man or woman had his own special " dip" candle in a tin candle-
stick, which was loaded with sand to keep it steady.1

Robert Leighton was the pioneer in the use of steam machinery in bookbinding
He was the first to adopt nearly all the machinery which has since become indispensable
to a wholesale binder. Several machines, such as the backing and trimming machines,
were his own invention. He was the first to use steam power for blocking in gold, and
was also the first to use aluminium and black and coloured inks for cloth cases, examples
of which were exhibited by him at the Exhibition of 185 1. John Leighton, the artist,
assisted his cousin Robert in designing the elaborate covers for many of the drawing-
room table books, of which the firm had almost a monopoly.2

Of late years many improvements in print-
ing and blocking upon" cloth have been invented.
Some of the most artistic specimens of cloth
binding are now designed by first-class artists.
Mr. Walter Crane is especially successful in this
branch of decoration, the delicate binding of
"Songs of Hellas" issued at Christmas 1892
being one of the best examples of his skill.
There is no reason why cloth bindings should
not be things of beauty ; they are made in end-
less variety and in vast numbers ; they are
durable, light, and convenient, but too often
they are decorated in an exceedingly poor
manner.

Bookbinding in the Technical
SCHOOLS. — Within the last ten years certain
philanthropists have established in country vil-
lages and in the slums of our towns classes
for technical instruction in various branches of
leather, wood, and metal work. Under the
auspices of the Home Arts and Industries Association in London, the Kyrle Society in
Birmingham, and similar associations in other parts of the country numbers of boys and
girls are being trained to work in various branches of applied art, ornamenting leather for
book-covers in a bold and effective way by hand-pressure. Various methods, such as
wheeling, cutting, embossing, and punching, are taught ; and although the designs are not
always well chosen, or the work perfectly executed, good results are often achieved by
the more apt pupils. The methods appear to have had a German origin, and to be in
some measure a revival of the art practised at Nuremberg and other German cities in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Chip carving may not be an ideal ornament for a
book-cover, but it has the merit of being a simple and effective decoration.
1 The Bookbinder, vol. i, p. 100. 2 The Bookseller, 1889.

BOOK-COVER,

CARVING.

256

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, who takes the greatest interest
in any movement likely to benefit the people, has established classes at Sandringham,
where the art of ornamenting leather is regularly taught. Moreover, we believe the
Princess has herself executed some work in pressed leather most beautifully. Her
Royal Highness the Princess Christian has taken under her special protection the art

of embroidery, and many beautiful
book-covers have been worked for her
by the ladies of the Royal School of
Art- Needlework, South Kensington.

In conclusion a few words about
amateur professors may not be out of
place.

The number of noble and distin-
H guished persons who have occupied
a their leisure in the pursuit of the art
ff of bookbinding is considerable ; but
1 the record of their acts and the proof
1 of their workmanship have alike been
I lost or overlooked. We have referred
M to some who possessed considerable
§ knowledge of the various processes

8 necessary in binding a book. The
1 account of the Ferrar family (see
3 p. 233), the Hon. Roger North, and

9 the celebrated William Hutton fur-
H nishes us with more important details.

The Hon. Roger North. — This dis-
H tin guished man of his time was, in
% his younger days, passionately fond
H of the art bibliopegistic, and pursued
m it with creditable success. His rela-
tive, in his biography, thus speaks of
this peculiarity of his character : —

" The young gentleman took a
fancy to the binding of books, and

SPECIMEN OF A PUNCHED AND WHEELED LEATHER BINDING DONE havinfj prOCUl'ed 3. Stitching-board

press, and cutter, fell to work, and
bound up books of account for him-
self, and divers for his friends, in a very decent manner." l

William Hutton, of Birmingham, who, from being a stocking-weaver in the most
abject state of poverty, raised himself to affluence and the respect and regard of the
1 North's " Life of Sir Dudley North,"

BY A PUPIL OF MISS
AEIKGER, DORKING.

FOSTER, OF WEST HACKHURST,

INDEX

ACCADIANS, 8

Act, in what sort Italian merchants
may sell merchandise, etc., 1st
Richard III., 1483, 267

Act concerning Printers and Bind-
ers of Books, 25th Henry VIII.,
1533, 268, 269

A. H., 147

Aldus Pius Manutius, 176, 179

Alphabet, origin of our, 27

Alyat, Alexandre, 134

Amerbach, 128

Ancient book covers, 55

Ani manuscript, 22

Anna, wife of the Emperor Ferdi-
nand, 97

Anna, Duchess of Buckingham, 97

Anne de Bretagne, 1S6

Anne, Queen, 235

A. R., 152

Aristotle's Constitution of Athens,
29

Arundel, Earl of, 225

Eleanor, Countess of, 96

Asmus the Armerer, 209, 210

Assyrian libraries, 12

■ literature, 15

records, 7-16

■ papyrus rolls, 1 1

■ ■ materials of, 12

rock-hewn, 12

Athos, Mount, 61

Auguerrand, Pierre, 202, 204, 206

Azured tooling, 179

Babylonian records, 7-16
materials of, 12

Badier, F., 199, 201

Bag-covers, 105

Banduyn, Piers, 126, 207

Barclay, Alexander, 215

Barker, Robert, 231

Barksdale, Clement, 115

Bateman, John, see James I.

Abraham, see James I.

Baumgarten, 239, 246

Bayeux, Edmond, 134

Bedford, Francis, 248

Bedford Missal, 92

Benedictine bookbinders, 64, 86,
87

libraries, 86, 87

Benedict, St., rule of, 64

, 240, 246

Berthelet alias Bartlet, Thomas,
223, 224

Bible, English, binding of, 233

Bignon, Jerome, 201

Bilfrid of Durham an early book-
binder, 89

B. K., 131

Bloc, Ludovicus, 131

Bodley, Sir T., 232, 233

Boillett, R., 207

Bokebyndere, John, 126

Bollcaeret, John, 131

Bonelli, Cardinal, 118

Book, derivation of the word, 33

Book of the Dead, 22

Book-covers, early form of, 45

Book-satchels, 75-77

Book-shrines, 78-82

Book-trade at Rome and Athens,
30

273

Books, antiquity of, 6

grants for binding, 88

great size of, 56, 93 94

held in great honour, 116

left by will, 96

made from vegetable sub-
stances originally, 32

material of, at ancient Rome,

37

supply of, at Rome, 49

price of, 88

Bookbinder, Nicholas the, 125, 126

Dionisia the, 126, 266

William the, of London, 126

■ John the, 126

Bookbinders of Paris in thirteenth
century, 104

Roman, 49

Bookbinders' Guilds, 124, 125

names on bindings, 128

tools, 122, 123

Bookbinding as now practised,
introduced, 53

in technical schools, 255

some modern styles of, 250

Boule, Andre, 134

Bozeraine, 206

Bozmanni, Cardinal, 116

Bradell, A. P., 206

Brandenburg, Albert of, 1 18

Brecy, Vicomte de, 240

Breze, Louis de, 189

Burgundy, Philip, Duke of, 117

Buried MS., 23

Burleigh, Lord, 225

Byzantine bindings, 57, 58, 59, 60,
61

18

INDEX.

Byzantine development, 57
school, rise of, 56

Caillard, J., 155
Cambridge, 232, 235, 239, 252

stamped bindings, 157, 15S

Cameo bindings, 183, 184

Canevari, Demetrio, 183

Canivet, Jean, 201

Capsa, 38

Carpe, 206

Caslay, David, 156

Catherine dei Medici, 188, 192

Parr, 212

Caumont, Comte de, 240
Caxton's binding, 135, 136
Caxton, William, 126
introduces printing into

England, 135.

binding stamps, 136

Cecil, William, Lord Burleigh, 225
Celtic bookbinding, 74-85
Chained books, 162-166
Chamillart, Marquise de, 202
Chamot, 206

Chaos, Accadian description of, 16
Charlemagne, 65
Charles I., 233, 234

II., 234

IX., 192

Chastre, Gasparde de la, 196

" Chemise " covers, 106

Chinese and Japanese bindings,

271
Olivers, Mr. Cedric, 249
Clarke, 246, 248
Clasps, 92, 118

Classic writings recovered, 2S
Claver, Alice, 207
Clay tablets, 7-16, 24

manner of making, 8

incased, 10

Cloth binding, 254
Clovio, Giulio, 118
Cobden-Sanderson, Mr. T. J., 259-

260, 261-262
Codex, 34

Ebnerianus, binding of, 57

Colbert, Jean Baptiste, 202
Collectors, some modern, 253
Commercial bindings, price of, 161
Conradus de Argentina, 128

Cook, Benjamin, 251
Copeland, Robert, 210
Coronation oath book, 90
Corpus Christi College, Oxford,

book-satchel at, 76
Corvinus, Mathias, 116
Cosin, Bishop, 222
Cottage roof style, 234
Cotton, Sir Robert, 233
Covers of rough leather, 92
Cracherode, Mordaunt, 251
Crane, Mr. Walter, 255
Cranmer, Archbishop, 233
Cuirbouilli, cases of, jy, 99
Cumdach, 78
Cuneiform writing, 8

origin of, 14

Cuthbert, St., gospel, 84, 85
Cylinders, foundation, 10, n, 12,

Dag^US, an early bookbinder, 83

Dawson, 240

Dead, book of, 22

Delille, binding made of his skin,

252
Demotic writing, 18
Derivation of words relating to

books, 33
Derome, 202, 206
Destruction of books, 94, 95
Devotional tablets, 55
d'Hoym, Comte, 202
Dianne de Poy tiers, 188-192
Dies used by bookbinders, 123
Digby, Sir Kenelm, 234
Dimma's book, 80
Dionisia le Bokebyndere, 125, 266
Diptychs, 46

consular, 47

derivation of the word, 47

ecclesiastical, 54

Domesday Book, binding of, 126

Donatuses, 114

Douceur, 202

Drummond Missal, 84

Dubois, Gilles, 201

Dubuisson, 202

Dudley, Robert, Earl of Leicester,

225
Du Lau, 240
Dunse, Roger, 126

Dupin, Jehan, 134

Dupuy, the brothers, 200

Durham binding (early), 108, 112

d'Urse, Claude, 201

Du Seuil, 202

legend of "the Abbe," 204

Earliest writings, 5

Early English bookbinding, 107-

"3
Edges, ornamental, 166, 167
Edward IV., 117, 126, 161, 207

arms of, 139

VI., 212, 225-227

arms of, 139

Edwards of Halifax, 250

E. G., 143, 148

Eggesteyn, 128

Egmondt, Frederic, 138, 140, 141

Egypt, early history, 17

Egyptian libraries, 24

literature, 24

MS., preservation of, 21

record, 17-25

writing, three varieties of, iS

Elizabeth, 212, 213', 214, 215, 216,

217, 218, 219, 220, 227, 228
Elliot and Chapman, 238
Elsenus, Peter, 131
Embroidered bookbindings, 167-

172
Enamels, 69

bindings in, 71, 72, 73

Champleve, 70

■ Cloisonne, 70

translucid, 70

English bookbinding, modern, 237,

292

gold-tooling, 223-262

royal bindings, 207-236

Engraved tools, 123

Estienne, R., 188

" Etruscan " bindings, 250

Eumenes, king of Pergamus, 36, 44

Eustace, Guillaume, 1S6

Eve, Nicholas, 192, 194

Eves, the, 193, 194, 199

Everard, Count, 58

will, 66, 67

Fairbairn, 246
Falkner, 246

INDEX.

275

Fanfare style, 194
Fastolfe, Sir J., 92
Ferrar, Nicholas, 233, 234
Fitzalan, Henry, Earl of Arundel,

225
Fogel, John, 128

Folded books, antiquity of, 47, 48
Foreign stationers, influx of, 1 38,

139

Forwarding, 53, 160

Francis I., 186

II., 192

Freez, Frederick, 155

Gerard, 155

French binding, thirteenth to fif-
teenth centuries, 103-106

bookbinders in London, 240

stamped bindings, 133

Galliard, 201
Gavere family, 131, 137

Joris de, 131

George III., 235
Gerard, P., 134
German binding, fourteenth and

fifteenth centuries, 99
G. G, 143

Ghaunt, Nicolaus, 128
Ghent bookbindings, 130
Gibson, John, 230, 231
Gimpus, Guy, 158
Gloucester, Humfrey, Duke of, 117
Godfrey, Garrat, 158
Goes, Hugo, 155
Golden binding, Queen Elizabeth's,

218, 219

-Book, The, 116

Gold-tooled bindings, foreign, 173-

206

English, 223-262

Gold-tooling, English, 223-262

Gosden, 246

G. P., 154

G. R., 143, 146, 147

Graten, Gerard van, 158

Greek alphabet, origin of, 27

books, 26-32

literature, 28

origin of, 26

writing, origin of, 27

Grey, Lady Jane, 217

Grolier, Jean, 176, 180, 181, 182

Gruel, Leon, 186, 206
Guigard, J., 199
Guilds, Continental, 124

English, 124, 125, 126

ordinance of the bookbinders

of London, a.d. 1403, 265
Guilebert, John, 131
Guise, Henri de, 192
Guschet, John, 155
Gutenburg, John, 114
G. W., 155, 156

H. A., 149, 150

Hale, Sir Matthew, 233

Harley, Robert, Earl of Oxford,

237
Hart, Andrew, 231
Henry I., book bound for, 90

II., 188

III., 193

IV. (of France ), 195

VI., 117

VII., 139, 140, 148, 209

VIII., 139, 209, 210, 223, 224,

225

Act of, 138

Henry, Prince of Wales, 233
Heraldic stamps, 142, 143, 144
Herculaneum, 41
Hereford, chained library at, 165
Hering, J., 246, 250
Heriot, George, 219
Heutzner, 212
Hieratic writing, 18
Hieroglyphics, 17, 18
Hill, William, 152
Hincmar, Archbishop, 67
Holbein, Hans, 170

ornaments used by, 206

Hollis, Thomas, 239

Homer, books of, 28, 29

Huet, Bishop, 201

Human leather, 252

Hungary, library of King Corvinus,

of, 116
Hunte, Thomas, 156
Hutchinson, Hugh, 234
Hutton, William, 256
Huvin, Jean, 134

I. G., 137
I. N., 133

Indian bookbinding, 270
Indulgence first printed, 1 14
Initials of bookbinders :. H. N.,

H. A., E. G., H. I., I. N., I. R.,

G. R., G. G, R L, A. H., etc.,

H3
Ink used by Egyptians, 24
Inscriptions, Greek, 28
I. P., 154
Italian fifteenth-century tooling,

174
painted bindings, 101, 102,

103
sixteenth-century bindings,

177, 173
Ivory, binding ornamented with,

90
book-covers, 60

Jacob, illuminator, 131
Jacobus filius Vincentii, 131
James I., 220, 221, 228-233. Note.
— James I.'s English binders
were John and Abraham Bate-
man. See Mr. Fletcher's dis-
covery, The Portfolio, April,
. 1893.

■ II, 235

Johnson, 246

Katheber, 246
Keller, 128

Kerver, Thielman, 133
Koburger, Antony, 128

La Tour, 20

Lair, John, de Siberch, 158

Lauwrin, Marc, 192

Leaden books, 43

Leather binding, ancient German,

99

bookbinding, 120

Lecompte, N., 140

Le Faulcheur (Estienne Rofiet),

187
Le Ferte, F, 206
Le Fevre, Guillaume, 134

Hermon, 134

Le Gascon, 199
Leicester, Earl of, 214, 225
Leighton, Archibald, 254
John, 255

276

INDEX.

Leighton Robert, 225

Leland, 212

Le Monnier, Pierre, 202

J. E. H., 206

Le Noir, Philipe, 187
Lesne, 206
Letton, John, 137
Levesseur, 20 r
Lewis, Charles, 246, 247

George, 248

■ — — Frederick, 248
Leyden library, 1 19
Libellus, 35

Liber Sapientise, binding of, 113
Libraries, early, 12, 13, 14, 24, 49,
86,87

in Egypt, 24

Libri Lintei, 34

Lindau, Gospels of, 67, 68, 82, S3

Literature, Assyrian, 15

Egyptian, 24

Lobley, Michael, 152
London binding (early), 1 io

Guild of Bookbinders, 265

guilds, 125, 126

Longepierre, Baron de, 202
Longueil, President, 201
Lortic, 206
Louis, St., book bound for, 104

de Bruges, 117

XII., 186

XIV., 200 •

Louvain stamped binding, 154
L. W., 150

Mace, R., 134
Machlinia, William de, 137
Mackenzie, 246
Mackinlay, John, 240, 245
Maioli, Thommaso, 176, 179
Man, age and origin of, 4
Mansfeldt, Count, 192
Manufacture of MS. in classic

times, 31
Martial describes a book, 39
Mary Queen of Scots, 192, 217

I., 210, 211, 212, 227

Mass of St. Gregory, 152
Maximius, St., 66
Mazarine, Cardinal, 118, 200

Bible, binding of, 128

M. D., 149, 150, 154

Mediaeval bookbinders, 115
Medici, the, patrons of literature,

117
Melissenda's Psalter, 60
Merchant, Guyot, 187
Merins, 201

Merne or Mearne, Samuel, 235
Miracles connected with books,

89
Molaise's gospels, 78, 79
Monastic bindings, 86-92

bookbinders, 63

Monasticism, 63, 64
Montmorency, the Constable, 189
Monza, treasures at, 82
Motthe, Georges, 228
Moulin, Jehan, 134

■ binding by, 153, 154

Munich library, 119
Musset, Alfred de, 253
Myths, Greek, 26, 27

Names stamped in bindings, 128,

131

Nationalised stationers : Henry
Harmanson, James van Gavere,
John Holibusche, John Gachet,
Henry Brikman, Simon Mar-
tinssone, Gerard Pilgrome, 139

Naude, Gabriel, 201

Nesle, Marquis, 192

Netherlandish stamped bindings,
130-133

Nicholas le Bokbindere, 125

Norins, Jehan, 133

North, Roger, 256

Norton, John, 231

Notary, Julian, 144

Nott, a London bookbinder, 235

Nowel, the bookbinder, 137'

Oldest papyrus MS., 23
Oriental bookbinding, 270
Osney Abbey, 64
Oxford, 232, 235, 239, 240
stamped bindings, 156

Packington, Sir John, 214
Padeloup, 202
Painted bindings, 102
Palaeolithic man, 3, 4, 5
Palimpsest, 29, 63

Panel-stamps, origin of, 130

Paper, papyrus, 20, 21

Papyrus known to the Baby-
lonians, II

name of, in Babylonia, 1 1

Egyptian, 19, 20

paper, kinds of, 37

rolls, Greek, 30, 31

" Great Harris,' 24

Parchment, 35

invention of, 36

Parker, Archbishop, 214, 22S

Patin, G., 201

Patrick, St., 75, 76

Pax, the, 56

Payne, Thomas, 245

Roger, 240-245

bills, 241, 242

portrait of, 243

binding by, 244

Persian bookbinding, 272

Phillatius invents binder's paste, 3S

Pictorial stamps, 150, 154

Pilgrome, Gerard, of Oxford, 1 39

Pingo, 239

Plantin Museum, 123

" Plough," 160

Pointille work, 199

Pompadour, Madame de, 206

Pompeii, 29

Portier, 201

Pote of Eton, 240

P. P., 154

Price of books in ancient Rome,
31

■ bookbindings, 161

Primitive carvings, 4, 5, 6

Printing, invention of, 1 14

■ ■ introduced into England, 135

Public libraries, first, at Rome, 49

Pudsey, Bishop, 112

Pugillaria, 43

Purgold, 206

Pynson, R., 138, 141

Pyx, the, 56

Quaritch, Mr. Bernard, 182, 204

Rasmus (Asmus) the Armerer,

209, 210
Relics kept in book-covers, 93
Remnant and Edmunds, 250

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. 257

learned and wealthy, was originally an amateur bookbinder. To this circumstance the
success of his career may be principally attributed. It is curious to trace his progress,
as he has quaintly recounted it in his life. He was fond of books and of music, and,
in 1746, he says: "An inclination for books began to expand; but here, as in music
and dress, money was wanting. The first articles of purchase were three volumes
of the Gentleman's Magazine, 1742-3-4. As I could not afford to pay for binding,
I fastened them together in a most cobbling style. These afforded me a treat.

" I could only raise books of small value, and these in worn-out bindings. I learnt
to patch, procuring paste, varnish, etc., and brought them into tolerable order, erected
shelves, and arranged them in the best manner I was able.

" If I purchased shabby books, it is no wonder that I dealt with a shabby bookseller
who kept his working apparatus in his shop. It is no wonder, too, if by repeated visits
I became acquainted with this shabby bookseller, and often saw him at work ; but it is
a wonder, and a fact, that I never saw him perform one act but I could perform it
myself, so strong was the desire to attain the art.

" I made no secret of my progress, and the bookseller rather encouraged me, and
that for two reasons : I bought such rubbish as nobody else would ; and he had often
an opportunity of selling me a cast-off tool for a shilling, not worth a penny. As I was
below every degree of opposition, a rivalship was out of the question.

"The first book I bound was a very small one — Shakespeare's 'Venus and Adonis.'
I showed it to the bookseller. He seemed surprised. I could see jealousy in his eye.
However, he recovered in a moment, and observed that, though he had sold me the
books and tools remarkably cheap, he could not think of giving so much for them again.
He had no doubt but I should break.

" He offered me a worn-down press for two shillings, which no man could use, and
which was laid by for the fire. I considered the nature of its construction, bought it,
and paid the two shillings. I then asked him to favour me with a hammer and a pin,
which he brought with half a conquering smile and half a sneer. I drove out the garter
pin, which, being galled, prevented the press from working, and turned another square,
which perfectly cured the press. He said in anger, ' If I had known, you should not
have had it ! ' This proved for forty-two years my best binding press, till burnt at the
riots in 1791."1

From an amateur, Hutton soon became a professed bookbinder ; for we find him,
in 1748, thus expressing himself: "Every soul who knew me scoffed at the idea of my
turning bookbinder, except my sister, who encouraged and aided me, otherwise I must
have sunk under it. I hated stocking-making, but not bookbinding. I still pursued the
two trades. Hurt to see my three volumes of magazines in so degraded a state, I took
them to pieces, and clothed them in a superior dress." And again in 1749: "A
bookbinder, fostered by the stocking frame, was such a novelty, that many people gave
me a book to bind. Hitherto I had only used the wretched tools, and the materials for
binding which my bookseller chose to sell me ; but I found there were many things

1 Hutton's " Life," 130-32.

17

258 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

wanting, which were only to be had in London ; besides, I wished to fix a corre-
spondence for what I wanted, without purchasing at second hand. There was a necessity
to take this journey ; but an obstacle arose, — I had no money."

This journey took him nine days, walking to London and back again, and of his
extraordinary economy his expenses during that time are a proof, having expended no
more than eight shillings and fourpence. He says : " I only wanted three alphabets, a
set of figures, and some ornamental tools for gilding books ; with leather and boards
for binding." He fixed at Southwell in Nottinghamshire, " took a shop at the rate of
twenty shillings a year, sent a few boards for shelves, a few tools, and about two cwt. of
trash, and became the most eminent bookseller in the place." 1 In the original
manuscript of " Claims for Damages sustained in the Birmingham Riots in 1791," now
in the possession of Mr. Sam. Timmins, F.S.A., who has kindly placed it at the Editor's
disposal, is an inventory of the contents of Hutton's house in High Street, Birmingham.
In the " work-room " there were, a press, ruling pens, tying, cutting and pressing
boards, alphabets of letters for lettering books, plough knives, etc. ; total claim, £8 6s.
It is probable that William Hutton bound some of the books printed by his friend
John Baskerville ; but after the riots he appears to have abandoned bookbinding, and
his son employed a certain Thomas Wood to bind the volumes in the library of Ward
End Hall. In a Birmingham Directory for 18 16 only two bookbinders' names are
recorded — Edward Todd and Thomas Wood, both of New Meeting Street. Sixty-six
years later in a Directory (1882) for the same city the names of thirty-five master-book-
binders appear ; this may be taken as a fair example of the increase of the trade
in the provinces.

The next name in our biographical notices is one celebrated as that of the most
distinguished chemist of his day, viz., Michael Faraday. This eminent person was the
son of a humble blacksmith, who apprenticed him to a small bookbinder in Blandford
Street when only nine years of age, and in which occupation he continued till he was
twenty-two. The circumstances that occasioned his exchanging the work-room of the
binder for the laboratory of the chemist have been thus forcibly related : " Ned Magrath,
afterwards secretary to the Athenaeum, happening five-and-twenty years ago to enter
the shop of Ribeau, observed one of the bucks of the paper bonnet zealously studying
a book he ought to have been binding. He approached — it was a volume of the old
Britqnnica, open at ELECTRICITY. He entered into talk with the greasy journeyman,
and was astonished to find in him a self-taught chemist of no slender pretensions. He
presented him with a set of tickets for Davy's lectures at the Royal Institution ; and
daily thereafter might the nondescript be seen perched, pen in hand, and his eyes
starting out of his head, just over the clock opposite the chair. At last the course
terminated ; but Faraday's spirit had received a new impulse, which nothing but dire
necessity could have restrained ; and from that he was saved by the promptitude with
which, on his forwarding a modest outline of his history, with the notes he had made of
these lectures, to Davy, that great and good man rushed to the rescue of kindred genius.
1 Hutton's " Life," 137, 138, 145.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING.

259

Sir Humphrey immediately appointed him an assistant in the laboratory ; and, after

two or three years had passed, he found Faraday qualified to act as his secretary." '

Mr. T. J. Cobden-Sanderson. The reproach that in England, though there is

infinitude of industry and of skill, there is no school of binding at the present moment,

rn-iELiFE:\
Ianddeath

SoFIASdE?

S^M'-

BACK OF BINDING BY MR. T. J.
COBDEN-SANDERSON.

(Reduced from original Sf
by l\ in.)

BINDING BY MR. T. J. COBDEN-SANDERSON\

(Reduced from original 6J by 4$ in.)

has, we venture to affirm, been removed by the work of Mr. T. J. Cobden-Sanderson.
His bindings are as distinctive and original as those of the Eves, and his methods
equally scientific. Up to the present time Mr. Cobden-Sanderson has devoted himself
solely to one kind of binding— leather tooled in gold— with respect to which he has

1 Eraser's Mae:, xiii. 224.

26o A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

on several occasions, publicly enunciated the principles upon which he works ; and as
these principles are good and in the main true, we propose to give the gist of them
to our readers, and in doing so hope that we have rightly interpreted the writer's
meaning.1

The labour of binding a book is usually divided and distributed among five or six
classes of persons, employed by a master-binder, to whom alone they are responsible.

IN GREEN MOROCCO GOLD-TOOLED, BY MR

(Reduced from original 8i by 6

T. J. COEDEN-SANDEliSMN.

The master in turn is subject to the orders of the public. The majority of men
and women who labour at the trade, being unknown beyond their own immediate circle,
have no incentive to take an interest in what they do ; blame or praise is given to the
master, not to them ; he is the thinking machine, they are merely the irresponsible tools.

1 See " Bookbinding,'' by T. J. Cobd en-Sanderson, The English Illustrated Magazine, January
1891, vol. viii., p. 323.

MODERN ENGLISH BOOKBINDING. 261

On the other hand, a man may well be set to work by another, and many men and
women may well co-operate to the production of a single work ; but there should be
a common and well-understood notion of what the work is or ought to be, and a common
and energetic desire to contribute to the completion of that work, each in due degree,
and for the work's sake, and for the workmanship, or even the shop's sake.

Under the present conditions it is impossible for binders either to develop their
highest qualities or to exercise them in full view of their vocation, both as men and
craftsmen. It is the division and distribution of labour and the unremitting pursuit of
one object in a blind and unintelligent manner which cause mere " finish " or cleverness of
execution to supersede artistic faculty.

In bookbinding, then, as in other crafts,' Mr. Cobden-Sanderson recommends for
the work's sake, and for man's sake, the union of the mind and of the hand, and the
concentration in one craftsman of all, or of as many as possible, of the labours which go
to the binding and to the decoration of a book.

On these points there may be differences of opinion. The question belongs rather
to the province of the political economist than to that of the art critic ; but the latter may
be allowed to maintain that work produced under the system advocated by Mr. Cobden-
Sanderson is infinitely superior to work produced under the less favourable conditions of
an ordinary bookbinding manufactory : the one bears the impress of mind, the other of
mechanism.

When Mr. Cobden-Sanderson exhibited some of his bindings at the Arts and
Crafts Exhibition in 1889, he caused it to be stated in the catalogue that the bindings
in morocco were all designed, bound, and tooled by hand by himself; sewn by Mrs.
Cobden-Sanderson ; edges gilt by J. Gwynn ; tools cut by Knight and Cottrell from
drawings by T. J. C. S. ; and letters cut by the same firm from drawings by Miss Mary
Morris. Thus each person engaged in the labour received due credit for his or her
work.

As to the bindings themselves, those of a permanent kind should have everything
done to make them play the part assigned to them well and always. The ideal type of
a quite permanently bound book is one with an individuality of its own, not too precise,
but pleasant to use, to handle, and to see. To increase the pleasure of handling the
Cobden-Sanderson bindings are generally furnished with a " hollow back," a peculiarity
which does not add to the sightliness of the back or of the fore edge.

As to the modes of decoration, Mr. Cobden-Sanderson disregards the old-established
" rules " for the guidance of the designer. While admitting that now and again the
subject of a book may suggest the motive and scheme of decoration, he denies that
decoration should aim, or even may aim, at illustration. Beauty is the aim of decoration,
and not illustration of the expression of ideas. Again, he regards as "profoundly vicious"
the rule that the natural as well as the conventional form of ornament should be used in
the decoration of a book -cover.

To use and develop his brain power is in the front rank of the duties of man ; and
a man can use and develop his brain power in the matter of design, and achieve success

262 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

in it, only by transcending what is called " the natural." He must re-cast not carelessly,
but most carefully, and re-distribute, the naturalism of nature, so that it shall be an
organism whose parts have symmetrical relationship one to another upon a plan of his
own devising.

Finally, Mr. Cobden-Sanderson urges all students and all amateurs of design to
eschew the rules of " contemporary styles," of literal " appropriateness and illustration,"
and of " naturalism " ; and further to eschew the habit, worse than a rule, of attempting
to hash up old designs into new designs, and of attempting to perfect old designs by
stricter delineation of curve and line and tool.

The designer must be constructive, and the one rule to which he needs to have
regard is a short one, and it is complete : the designer, in designing, must — design.

These are Mr. Cobden-Sanderson's principles, and any one who reads them
carefully will be better able to appreciate the beauty of his designs. As a work of art
the binding of " Atalanta in Calydon " takes a high rank. The delicate colour of the
green morocco is in harmony with the golden ornament, and the golden ornament is a
harmony in itself. The tools used are all elemental, i.e., a separate tool for every
separate flower, stalk, bud, leaf, thorn, dot, star, and so on ; and the designs are built
up piece by piece, the tools themselves being used, blackened in the flame of a lamp or
candle, and impressed on a piece of paper the size and shape of the part of the book
to be decorated. We are told that the motive and the scheme of distribution were
suggested by the whole subject-matter of the poem, but especially by the dream of
Althaea, the mother of Meleager.

" I dreamed that out of this my womb had sprung
Fire and a fire-brand, . . .
And I with gathered raiment from the bed
Sprang and drew forth the brand, and cast on it
Water, and trod the flame bare-foot, and crushed
With naked hand spark beaten out of spark,
And blew against and quenched it ;

. . . again
I dreamt, and saw the black brand burst on fire
As a branch burst in flower."

These lines haunted the designer when he thought of the pattern for the cover, and
came out, as may be seen, in the decoration.

" For the flame I used a seed-pod, which I had ready to hand, and for the leaves
a quivering heart ; and I blent them together in the form of a brand that burst on fire
' as a branch burst in flower,' and I set them torch-wise around the margins of the green
cover, green for the young life burning away ! " 1

1 The English Illustrated Magazine, vol. viii., p. 330.

APPENDIX.

263

AppendixTA.
I. Ordinance of the Bookbinders Guild, London, a.d. 1403.

II. Dispute arising from the Capture of Certain Welchmen, Members
of the Household of King Edward II., who had robbed Dionisia,

LE BOKEBYNDERE OF LONDON. A.D. I3II.

III. An Act of Richard III. a.d. 1483.

Aliens may bring in Books to be sold.

Appendix B.
An Act concerning Printers and Binders of Books, a.d. 1533.

Appendix C.
Some Oriental Forms of Bookbinding.

264

APPENDIX A.

I.

ORDINANCE OF THE BOOKBINDERS GUILD, LONDON, a.d. 1403.

jDrtmiance of tlje flQiriterg of ^e$t4ettec, Hfnmerss, ana otljerss tofjo lu'na anti

gfCll ISOO&SS III tlje Cttp Of HoniJOtt.1 4 Henry IV. A.D. 1403. Letter-Book if
fol. xxv. Archives of the City of London. Origi?ial in Latin and Norman
French.

" "O E it remembered, that on the 12th day of July, in the 4th year, etc., the reputable men of
JZ) the craft of writers of text-letter, those commonly called ' Limners ' {i.e., painters and
decorators of manuscripts), and other good folks, citizens of London who were wont to bind and
to sell books, presented here unto John Walcote, Mayor, and the Aldermen of London, a certain
petition in these words, —

" ' Unto the honourable Lords, and wise, the Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London
pray very humbly all the good folks, freemen of the said city, of the trades of writers of text-letter,
lymenours, and other folks of London, who are wont to bind and to sell books ; that it may please
your great sagenesses to grant unto them, that they may elect yearly two reputable men, the one
a lymenour, the other a text-writer, to be Wardens of the said trades ; and that the names of the
Wardens so elected may be presented each year before the Mayor, for the time being, and they
be there sworn well and diligently to oversee that good rule and governance is had and exercised
by all folks of the same trades in all works unto the said trades pertaining, to the praise and good
fame of the loyal good men of the said trades, and to the shame and blame of the bad and
disloyal men of the same. And that the same Wardens may call together all the men of the
said trades honourably and peaceably, when need shall be, as well for the good rule and governance
of the said city, as of the trades aforesaid ; and that the same Wardens, in performing their due
office, may present from time to time all the defaults of the said bad and disloyal men to the
Chamberlain at the Guildhall, for the time being, to the end that the same may there, according
to the wise and prudent discretion of the governors of the said city, be corrected, punished and

1 H. T. Riley, " Memorials of London," p. 557-
265

266 A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

duly redressed. And that all who are rebellious against the said Wardens, as to the survey and
good rule of the same trades, may be punished, according to the general Ordinance made as to
rebellious persons in trades of the said city, as set forth in Book G., fol. cxxxv. And that it may
please you to command that this petition, by your sagenesses granted, may be entered of record
for time to come ; for the love of God, and as a work of charity.'

" Which petition having been read before the said Mayor and Aldermen, and fully understood,
for the reason especially that it concerned the common weal and profit that transgressors of the
Ordinance aforesaid should be severely punished, as before stated, it was unanimously granted
by them that the Ordinance should thereafter be faithfully observed, and that transgressors should
be punished in manner as above stated."

D 10 NISI A, LE BOKEBYNDERE OF LONDON.

Capture of Certain flfiiclcljmen in jfletegtrete ; anti ofsspute arising tfjerefrom.

4 Edward II. A.D. 13 n. Letter-Book D., fol. cxlii. {Latin). Riley, p. 89.

" T) E it remembered, that on Wednesday the Feast of St. Thomas the Martyr (7 July), in the
I) 4th year of King Edward, son of King Edward, there were congregated at the Guildhall,
John de Gysorz — Mayor of the said city — John de Wengrave, Richard de Gloucestre, and other
Aldermen, & Richard de Wellford, Sheriff, and many other good men of the commonality, thither
summoned to make ordinance on the following matter, that is to say, —

" One Tyder Thoyd, a Welchman, Edmund the Welchman, Meric de Berdecke, Mereduz
de Beauveur, and Hersal de Theder, were attached at the suit of Dionisia le Bokebyndere, who
found sureties to prosecute them for felony, as being guilty of burglary in her house in Fletestrete,
in the suburbs of London ; and after they had been sent to the prison of Newgate, there came a
person, ' Peter de Bernardestone ' by name, Marshal of the household of our Lord the King,
and on the King's behalf demanded that the bodies of the said Welchmen should be delivered up
to him, seeing that they were of the King's establishment and household ; & that if any one
should wish to prosecute them, he must sue before the Senechal and Marshal, if he should
think proper.

" And conference and discussion being held upon this with the good men of the commonality,
answer was given to the said Marshal, that, according to the custom and franchise of the City,
persons attached within the liberties thereof for such felonies and trespasses as this, ought not to
be delivered elsewhere than within the same city, before the Justiciars of our Lord the King, or
the officials of the city. And this answer having been given, the said Marshal enjoined the Mayor,
Sheriffs and Aldermen on behalf of our Lord the King, that they should be at Westminster, before
the Council of our Lord the King to make answer as to the premises, etc.

" Afterwards, on the Tuesday following, the said Mayor, and Aldermen, and Sheriffs, appeared
before Sir Edmund de Maule, Senechal of our Lord the King, and before his Council, then at the
Friars Preachers {Black Friars) sitting. And they were told they must deliver up the bodies of
the prisoners, as they were before enjoined, etc. And the Mayor and Aldermen gave the same
answer as before, etc."

The sequel of this dispute is not stated.

APPENDIX A.

267

III.

Anno Primo Ricardi III. a.d. 1483.

f AN A CT, ETC. IN WHA T SORT ITALIAN MERCHA NTS MA Y SELL
MERCHANDISE, ETC.

\Note. — The first part of this Act relates only to merchants generally ; it forbids them to import
certain goods into England, and contains no reference to stationers or bookbinders. The last clause,
however, makes a special provision for stationers as follows.]

"If § XII. T)ROVIDED always that this Act, or any part thereof, or any other Act made or to
_L be made in this said Parliament, should not extend to be in Prejudice, disturbance,
damage or impediment to any artificer or merchant stranger of what nation or country he be or
shall be of, for bringing into this Realm or selling by retail or otherwise any Books, written or
printed, or for inhabiting within this said Realm for the same intent, or any Scrivener, Alluminor,
Reader, or Printer of such Books which he hath or shall have to sell by way of merchandise, or
for their dwelling within this said Realm for the exercise of the said occupations, this Act or any
part thereof notwithstanding."

This provision was repealed by 25 Henry VIII., c. 15 : see also 1 Henry VII., c. 10 ;
3 Henry VII., c. 8 ; 21 Henry VIII., c. 16 ; 22 Henry VIII., c. 13, etc.

CENTRE ORNAMENT. NETHERLANDISH, LATE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

Sj^p!*j^^iq3n^5T=^f=^I*CI=>J^i^^

APPENDIX B.

Anno XXV. Henrici Octavi (1533-4).
IT an act concerning; printers? anti Mrtoety of Boofe^.1

"If "I T 7"HEREAS by the provision of a statute made in the first year of the reign of King
V V Richard III., it was provided in the same act that all strangers repairing into this
realm might lawfully bring into the said realm printed and written books, to sell at their liberty
and pleasure. By force of which provision there hath comen into this realm, sithen the making
of the same, a marvelous number of printed books, and daily doth ; and the cause of making of
the same provision seemeth to be, for that there were but few books and few printers, within this
realm at that time, which could well exercise and occupy the said science and craft of printing.

"% Nevertheless, sithen the making of the said provision, many of thisirealm, being the king's
natural subjects, have given them so diligently to learn and exercise the said craft of printing
that at this day there be within this realm a great number cunning and expert in the said science
or craft of printing : as able to exercise the said craft in all points, as any stranger in any other
realm or country. And furthermore, where there be a great number of the king's subjects within
this realm, which live by the craft and mystery of binding of books, and that there be a great
multitude well expert in the same, yet all this notwithstanding there are divers persons that bring
from beyond the sea great plenty of printed books, not only in the Latin tongue, but also in our
maternal English tongue, some bound in boards, some in leather, and some in parchment, and
them sell by retail, whereby many of the king's subjects, being binders of books and having none
other faculty wherewith to get their living, be destitute of work, and like to be undone, except
some reformation be herein had. Be it therefore enacted by the king our sovereigne lord, the
lords spiritual and temporal, and the commons in this present parliament assembled, and by
authority of the same, that the said proviso, made in the first year of the said King Richard the
Third, from the feast of the nativity of our Lord God next coming, shall be void and of none
effect.

" 1f And further, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no persons, resiant, or inhabitant,
within this realm, after the said feast of Christmas next coming, shall buy to sell again, any

1 This copy is taken from the edition printed at London in 1550.

APPENDIX B. 269

printed books, brought from any parts out of the king's obeysance, ready bound in boards, leather
or parchment, upon pain to lose and forfeit for every book bound out of the said king's obeysance>
and brought into this realm, and brought by any person or persons within the same to sell again
contrary to this act, six shillings and eight pence.

" % And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that no person or persons, inhabitant
or resiant within this realm, after the said feast of Christmas, shall buy within this realm, of any
stranger bourn out of the king's obeysance, other then of denizens, any manner of printed books,
brought from any the parts beyond the sea, except only by engross, and not by retail, upon pain
of forfeiture of vi. s. viii. d. for every book so bought by retail, contrary to the form and effect of
this estatute. The said forfeitures to be always levied of the buyers of any such books contrary to
this act the one half of the said forfeitures to be to the use of our sovereign lord the king, and
the other moiety to be to the party that will seize, or sue for the same in any of the king's courts,
to be by bill, plaint, or information, wherein the defendant shall not be admitted to wage his law,
nor no protection, ne essoin shall be unto him allowed.

" *[ Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any of the said printers,
or sellers of printed books, inhabited within this realm, at any time hereafter, happen in such wise
to enhance, or encrease the prices of any such printed books in sale or. binding, at too high and
unreasonable prices, in such wise as complaint be made thereof unto the king's highness, or unto
the lord chancellor, lord treasurer, or any of the chief justices of the one bench or the other,
that then the same lord chancellor, lord treasurer, and two chief justices, or two of any of them,
shall have power and authority to enquire thereof, as well by the oaths of twelve honest and
discreet persons, as otherwise by due examination by their discression. And after the same
enhauncino- and encreasing of the said prices of the said books and binding, shall be so found by
the said twelve men, or otherwise, by examination of the said chancellor, lord treasurer and
justices, or two of them, that then the same lord chancellor, lord treasurer, and justices, or two of
them at the least from time to time, shall have pow-er and authority to reform and redress such
enhauncing of the prices of printed books from time to time by their discissions, and to limit
prices as well of the books, as for the binding of, them. And over that, the offender or offenders
thereof beinc convict by examination of the same chancellor, lord treasurer, or two justices, or
two of them, or otherwise, shall lose and forfeit for every book by them sold, whereof the price
shall be enhanced for the book, or binding thereof, iii. s. iv. d., the one half thereof shall be to the
king's highness, and the other half to the parties grieved, that will complain upon the same, in
manner and form before rehearsed."

ai^A<Muiuu>uiiiuufeAAiA&Aai»J&*aiA&^^

ENGRAVED IVORY GUARD TO A PALM-LEAF MANUSCRIPT.

(Photographed from the original in the Bodleian Library.)

APPENDIX C.

SOME ORIENTAL FORMS OF BOOKBINDING.

ORIENTAL bindings differ totally in appearance from those described in the main portion
of this book ; they could not have been included in any of the preceding chapters without
inconvenience, and on this account it has seemed well to place them in the appendix. Eastern
bindings may be classed under five main heads— Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Turkish, and Persian ;
but there are many subdivisions.

Indian. — Among the various forms of books anciently in use in Central and Southern Asia,
we may place first those written on the leaves of plants or trees, generally the palmyra palm,
on the surface of which letters were engraved with a stylus. The British Museum, the libraries
at Oxford and Cambridge, and the Sloane Library contain many examples of these manuscripts
written on leaves in the Sanscrit, Burman, Peguan, Ceylonese, and other languages.1 The
Ceylonese appear to prefer the leaf of the talipot tree, on account of its superior breadth and
thickness. From these leaves they cut out slips from a foot to a foot and a half long, and about
two inches broad. These slips being smoothed, and all excrescences pared off with the knife,
they are ready for use without any other preparation. After the characters have been formed on
the leaf, they rub them over with a preparation of oil and charcoal, which not only renders them
more distinct, but so permanent that they cannot be effaced. AVhen one slip is insufficient to
contain the whole of a subject, the Ceylonese string several together by passing a piece of twine

through them, and attach them to a board,

m.

similar to our manner of filing newspapers.2
But a greater regard for their preservation is
shown for their more extended performances, or
for such works as are held in estimation by them,
as is displayed in the annexed sketch of a
Ceylonese book. The leaves are laid one over the other. They are not sewn, as in European
bindings, but kept together by two strings, as before referred to. These are laced through two
holes made in each of the leaves, which are fastened to the upper covering of the book by two
knobs, formed of some expensive material, sometimes of crystal. The boards which confine the
leaves together are made of hard wood, generally the jack tree, and are often beautifully orna-
mented, painted, and lacquered.

The Burmans and Hindoos form and compose their books in the same manner, and of like
1 Ayscough's "Catalogue," 904, 906. ■ Percival's "Ceylon," 205.

270

APPENDIX C. 271

material.1 A writer in the "Asiatic Researches ''-' says the Burmans, in their more elegant books,
write on sheets'of ivory, or on very fine white palmyra leaves: the ivory is stained black, and the
margins are ornamented with gilding, while the characters are enamelled or gilt. On the palmyra
leaves the characters are in general of black enamel, and the leaves and margin painted with
flowers in various bright colours. They are bound as before described. In the finer binding the
boards are lacquered, the edges of the leaves cut smooth and gilt, and the title written on the
upper board. The more elegant books are in general wrapped up in silk cloth, and bound round
by a garter, in which the natives ingeniously contrive to weave the title of the book.

The old East India Company's library contained a very elegant Burman manuscript in the
Pali, or sacred character, presented by Colonel Clifford. It is covered with coloured paper, with
grotesque coloured figures. Another specimen has the edges partly gilt. This library also
contained a very curious specimen of Batta writing, the production of, and presented by, a
cannibal chief, Munto Panei. It is bound with plain wood Covers. There is also another
covered with leather, dressed with the hair on.

Chinese and Japanese. — The Chinese first made use of bamboo, cut very thin, for
the formation of their books, afterwards silk or cotton. From these they subsequently
manufactured paper, which is still generally made from cotton. From the fineness of its
texture only one side can be written or printed on.3 This
circumstance causes a distinct characteristic in the binding of
the Chinese. Two pages are printed upon one leaf, usually
from the top to the bottom, as seen in the engraving. The
paper is then folded, and sewn up in the open part, while the
close side composes the outer margin. The blank half of the
leaf being thus joined, the printed part only is visible, which,
from the thinness of the paper, appears as if on opposite sides
of a single leaf. The cover is not glued to the leaves ; it is
a case wrapped round them, in some parts double, and
secured by a fastening of silk and bone. When this is loosened, and the boards unfolded, there
appear within from four to six or seven slightly stitched livraisons, about the size of one of
our magazines, which can be taken out and replaced at pleasure.4 The cover or case of the
Chinese bindings here represented is formed of a brown pasteboard, made of a species of smooth
and strong paper. For their common books an addition of a cover of fancy paper is adopted ;
but for those in greater repute they employ silk, or a species of taffeta with flowers, which they
use almost solely for this purpose. Some of their books are covered with red brocade, orna-
mented with flowers of gold and silver. The title, written or printed on a slip of paper, is
generally pasted upon a corner of a cover. Both the Chinese and Japanese anciently used rolls,
especially for their allegorical pictures, the ends of the rolls being fastened to rods in much the
same manner as were the old Roman manuscripts.

Turkish. — The early sovereigns of Turkey established Kitab Khanls, or public libraries, in
the great cities of their empire. In Constantinople alone there are now thirty-five, containing from
one to five thousand manuscripts each. The followers of Mahomet have a peculiar mode of binding
their books. It resembles that of Europe in the manner of sewing and headbanding, but the back is
left flat, instead of being rounded, as we are accustomed to form it. The books are usually coVered
with red, green, or black morocco, one of the sides being lengthened out, so as to fold over the fore

' Symes's "Embassy to Ava," ii. 409. 3 Morrison's "Miscellany," 33, 34.

J Vol. iv. 306. ' Astle's "Collection," iv. 162, 163.

272

A HISTORY OF THE ART OF BOOKBINDING.

edge, and fasten on the other side like the flap of a portfolio, of which the tailpiece will give
a just idea.

Sometimes this projection is lodged between the board and leaves. The covers are enriched
with ornaments in gold and silver, or are beautifully tooled. The title of the book is marked upon
the edges of the leaves, and also on the edge of the outer covering. This covering is a case of
similar material to the binding, in which the latter is placed, to protect it from dust and injury.
The books in the Turkish libraries are placed in cases, with glass or wire-work fronts, and rest
on their sides, one above another.

The Persians excel in painted bindings, which are often of great beauty. In South
Kensington Museum may be seen a fine collection of Persian book-covers, chiefly from the
Shah's library. In the same museum there is a case containing an interesting collection of Persian
bookbinding tools.

INDEX.

277

Reynes, John, 145, 147, 157
Richard III., 138

Act of, 267

Theodore, 134

J-, 134

Richelieu, Cardinal, 200
Richenbach, John, 128
Ritter, Gaspar, ng
Riviere, 248
R. L., 147
R. O., 149
Roce, Denis, 134
Rock-hewn records, 12
Roffet, Estienne, 187
Rolls, length of, 49

of dragon's gut, 48

manner ol adornment of, 37

ornamental, 122

Roman books, 26

bookbinders, 37

literature, origin of, 32

MS., illuminated, 37

Rood, Theodore, 156
Rosetta Stone, 18, 19
Rosslyn Missal, 84
Ruette, A., 201
Mace, 199

Sainte Maure, Louis de, 192

Savile, Sir Henry, 233

Sawn backs, 239

Scarcity of books in the Middle

Ages, 63
Scotch bookbinders, 235
Scribes, Celtic, 75

Roman, 37

Semitic Babylonians, 8
Septuagint, origin of, 35, 36
Sibylline books, 32
Sienese bindings, 101
Signatures, 159, 160
S on bookbindings, 194

Silver bookbindings, 11S, 119

Skelton, John, 210

Smith, 246

Speryng, Nicholas, 152, 154, 157,

158
Staggemeier, 246
Stamps, ornamental, 122
Stampings, arrangement of, on

bookbindings, 121
Stowe Missal, 78, 81
Sumptuous bindings, 58, 59, 60
Symbol on bindings, 194

Tablets, 43, 44, 45

Technical schools, bookbinding in,

255
Tel-el-Amarna tablets, 24
Tessier, 206

Textus, derivation of, 56
Thou, Jacques Auguste de, 195,

199

Christophe, 180

Titulus, 38

Tortoiseshell bindings, 235

Tory, Geoffroy, 176, 184, 1S6

Toye, John, 152

T P., 154

Trade bindings, 123

Trautz, 206

Tritheimius, 64, 89

Tudor, Marguerite, binding owned

by, 97
Turkish bookbinding, 271

Umbilicus, 38

Valentinois, Duchesse de,

(Dianue de Poytiers), 188-192
Valois, Marguerite de, 199
Vant, Stephen, 126
Vecellio, Cesare, 167

Veldener, 128
Vellum, 35

(painted bindings), 251

Velvet, 97

bindings, 96

Venetian bindings, 227

Victoria, Queen, 235

Vienna, Imperial Library of, 11S

Volumen, 34

Vulcanius, Martin, 131

Walther, 246
Wansfost, Gerard, 155
Weesalia, John de, 131
Weir, Richard, 245

Mrs., 246

Whitaker, 247
Whittington, Robert, 225
William III., 235

■ the bookbinder, 1 26

Williams, Theodore, 248
Wills, books left by, 97
Winchester binding (early), ioy
Windsor, library at, 236
Wolsey, Cardinal, 225
Worcester bindings, 88
Wotton, Thomas, 225
Woudix, J. de, 131
Writing, cuneiform, 18

demotic, 18

■ hieratic, 18

hieroglyphic, 18

materials of the Egyptians,

24
Wrought leather, antiquity of, 97
Wybarun, Thomas, 156
Wynkyn de Worde, 136, 137

Zaehnsdorf, Mr., 248
Zeiner, 128

Elliot Stock, Paternoster Row, London.

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Fifty copies only have been printed on large paper for collectors, price £3 3s. nett.

The Book-Hunter in Paris.

Being Studies among the Bookstalls of the Quays.

By OCTAVE UZANNE.

With an Introduction by AUGUSTINE BIRRELL, Q.C., M.P.,

Author of "Obiter Dicta," " Res Judicatse," etc., and 144 Characteristic Illustrations
interspersed in the text.

SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

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spins phrases lovingly, and always keeps you in good spirits. He was just the man to write such a book." — Bookman.

"A very interesting book. Mr. Birrell's introduction is a pleasant and useful explanation of the volume, which
is presented in a form fully deserving of its literary merits." — Times.

"M. LTzanne discourses as one learned in the ways of that curious world, and handles his subject as one who
loves it. Lightly does he carry his learning, and brightly does he sketch the bookmen and their riverside market.
Of present interest to all book-lovers are his piquant contrasts of the old order and the new." — Saturday Review.

" This extremely curious literary work comprehends ten chapters, in which every bookish phase of the Quais
is dealt with in a masterful and entirely sympathetic manner. Indeed, it may be regarded as quite the final Dook
on the subject, for we cannot see how even the versatility of the French bookman can discover any new point to
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work a vividness which not even the facile pen of the author could impart." — Daily Chronicle.

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The Book Lover's Library.

BOOK-SONG,

An Anthology of Poems of Books and Bookmen from Modern Authors.

Edited by GLEESON WHITE, Editor of "Ballads and Rondeaus," "Garde Joyeuse," etc., etc.

""THE Book Collector, the Bookworm, and the Book Lover have ever been among the most ardent
-*- devotees in celebrating the praises of their peculiar cult, and the pleasures of their pursuits, in
verse ; and many and varied have been the poetic contributions to literature, both in ancient and
modern times, in praise of books.

The present volume, entitled " Book-Song," is the modern part of the anthology. Such a collection,
drawing so largely upon modern works, has only been possible by the courtesy of the various holders of
the copyright, who have kindly allowed so much valuable matter to be fully quoted. The volume has
been compiled by Mr. Gleeson White, whose wide knowledge and catholic taste have brought together
many very beautiful and acceptable pieces. These are arranged alphabetically, with the author's name
to each extract, and an index is given of titles.

THE PRECEDING VOLUMES IN THE BOOK LOVER'S LIBRARY ARE .—
BOOKS IN CHAINS, AND OTHER BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PAPERS. By the late WILLIAM BLADES.
LITERARY BLUNDERS; a Chapter in the History of Human Error. By HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
BOOKS CONDEMNED TO BE BURNT. By JAMES ANSON FARRER.
THE STORY OF THE IMITATIO CHRISTI. By LEONARD WHEATLEY.
STUDIES IN JOCULAR LITERATURE. By W. C. HAZLITT.

NEWSPAPER REPORTING IN OLDEN TIME AND TO-DAY. By JOHN PENDLETON.
HOW TO CATALOGUE A LIBRARY. By HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.

FOREIGN VISITORS IN ENGLAND, AND WHAT THEY THOUGHT OF US. By EDWARD SMITH.
THE BOOK OF NODDLES: Stories of Simpletons : or, Fools and their Follies. By W. A. CLOUSTON.
THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS. By WILLIAM BLADES.

THE STORY OF SOME FAMOUS BOOKS. By F. SAUNDERS, Author of " Salad for the Social and Solitary."
THE DEDICATION OF BOOKS TO PATRON AND FRIEND. By HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.
HOW TO FORM A LIBRARY. By HENRY B. WHEATLEY, F.S.A.

OLD COOKERY BOOKS AND ANCIENT CUISINE. By WILLIAM CAREW HAZLITT.
THE LITERATURE OF LOCAL INSTITUTIONS. By G. LAURENCE GOMME, F.S.A.
MODERN METHODS OF ILLUSTRATING BOOKS.
GLEANINGS IN OLD GARDEN LITERATURE. By W. CAREW HAZLITT.

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" Valuable to booksellers, and still more so to book buyers." — Athcnwum.

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UNIFORM WITH "OBITER DICTA.''
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The Poets' Praise.

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For this purpose she has examined anew the whole corpus poetaram, from Chaucer to the present day,
selecting all such " commendatory notices " as seemed worthy of permanent record. She has gone, in
every case, to the editions which appeared to have most authority, and, in the case of recent and con-
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The compiler's hope is that her work will serve at once as a treasury of charming things, and as
a book of reference, easily utilised, to a delightful phase of poetic thought and expression. It should
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